Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento
by Snarfburgalar
Summary: It is the first battle that Kagome has ever witnessed between Sesshomaru and Inuyasha. But something horrible happens, and her fate is left to be decided by the elder brother.Based on KillBill.
1. It Surprises and Scares

I know I shouldn't be doing this. I know I know I know I know. I should be being a decent, respectable, upright citizen and attend to my other stories. Well you know what? I'M NOT. I feel like writing this, and so that's what I'm going to do. For the record, right before this first chapter here I was trying, TRYING REALLY HARD, to write new chapters for other stories. But I couldn't satisfy myself with anything...So here we are. Besides, I'm under a tad bit of emotional stress during spring break, and that's never fun...to be stressed on a vacation. This is a form of therapy for me children. Now listen up, I don't think there's anyone out there who's so obsessed with Inuyasha that they'd pick apart the following text. This story starts in episode...what was it...seven, I think. Where they're still in the tomb and such of that nature, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, anyway, let's begin.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha... anything related to it, etc., and nothing else that I stupidly mention and you feel isn't mine.  
  
***  
  
Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento  
  
Chapter 1-It Surprises and Scares  
  
***  
  
She shuddered with shock as something rippled over her heart. A brooding something, a wicked something that chilled her blood and caused her hand to stop abruptly before tossing another skull at the toad creature Jaken's head. Her skin began to shiver while every individual hair on her body stood erect in tense fear. Dimly, without realizing it, she uttered very softly, "Inuyasha..."   
  
Her surroundings blurred intensely for a moment, and she felt herself stumble, nearly fall while she struggled not to feint under the pressure of this new feeling. It was not long before she moaned very softly in pain and screwed her eyes shut; all sounds faded out and she was deaf to everything but the pain that was beginning to consume her steadily. What was going on?  
  
A familiar voice overflowing with cocky superiority brought her back to reality. "Hey," it shouted dejectedly at her, "You'd better not be about to die or anything! Do you hear me you stupid girl?! Kagome!"  
  
Kagome's eyes blinked open suddenly and she found herself trembling where she stood on the bed of bones that stretched across the bottom of the skeletal remains Inuyasha's father in every direction. She took a hesitant step back to gain her shaky footing and then tried to locate the half-demon.  
  
A thundering crash made her jump and she spun around, remembering the dire situation at hand. Towering above her and far too close for comfort, a mighty white demon dog was stomping over the skeleton-tomb furiously. A red blur was darting frantically in and out of Kagome's range of sight; dodging well aimed blows from the massive demon narrowly and just barely escaping the barrage of stone debris that followed after him with each impact. Inuyasha landed near enough to her to yell back in her general direction again, "Don't you die on me!" He pointed an accusing finger at her. His other hand was wrapped stiffly around the fraying handle of a dying old sword.  
  
Kagome breathed slowly and deeply as she watched him take off again just in time to avoid a gigantic paw coming down on top of him. She shielded herself momentarily from the breeze and wave of dust that was kicked up from the blow and then called back to him, "Inuyasha, I'm fine, don't worry!"  
  
"Worry!" He yelled back, "Who said anything about worrying?! You're obviously more helpful alive than dead! Although sometimes," he moved away from another attack, "I question that!"  
  
Her anger blossomed inside of her in seconds, and her fists clenched up immediately as she responded to the frenzied speck that was Inuyasha. "Oh REALLY?! Just who was it who got the Tetsusaiga for you?! ME!"  
  
He moved out of her glare again in a panicked bolt. "Yeah, and a lot of help it turned out to be!"  
  
Kagome stood rooted to the ground in fury for a second, trying to register the total insensitivity of the half-breed, when the chilling numbness crept back into her without warning. She gave a little noise of surprise when her blood suddenly froze again, but this time was able to gain control before it dominated her senses like the time before. It was a foreboding feeling, a warning feeling. "Inuyasha!" She cried, this time with terrified concern ringing in her voice instead of spite.  
  
"What?!" Another monstrous noise of destruction followed his voice.  
  
"Something bad is going to happen!" Every syllable was wavering, "I can feel it...!"  
  
"Something bad IS happening, you idiot!"  
  
"No..." Her voice became small and scared, and he was too far away to hear her while she was too frightened to raise her own volume. "This is different...Inuyasha, Inuyasha!"  
  
"WATCH OUT!"  
  
  
  
The white demon dog, Sesshomaru, lunged at her forcefully with both front paws put forward in a direct motion to stomp out her life. Before she even had time to react, it was too late, and he was nearly on top of Kagome's small frame when Inuyasha hurried in and bounded upwards with her in his arms just in time. They rose into the air and then drifted down gently to land safely on an upper rib far enough above Sesshomaru so that he wouldn't realize where they were for a little while at least.  
  
Inuyasha released her immediately, "Are you trying to get yourself killed just to piss me off or what?!" Kagome was trembling violently and her eyes were clamped shut. Inuyasha hesitated, "Quit doing that. It wasn't that bad." She continued to shake uncontrollably, and her hands were still holding on as tightly as possible to his shoulders. She was making soft sounds that alarmed him more than anything, like she was in pain. "Kagome...Kagome? Snap out of it moron!" He shook her roughly by the shoulder and presently she started to gasp.  
  
Kagome took great breaths, as if she had been drowning moments before. When she finally raised her face to him there were tears running down her cheeks. "Inuyasha..." The name came out almost like a sob.  
  
He could only stare at her in abysmal confusion as he released her shoulder. "What is it with you?" he asked quietly as he gently removed her small hands from him. She was quick to grab back.  
  
"Promise me you won't go back out there! You can't go back out there! Promise me!" She wept again after the sudden outburst while still trying to be as stern as possible. Her shoulders heaved with the sobs, but her eyes still stared out so piercingly that Inuyasha could not look away.  
  
"What are you talking about?" He said skeptically.  
  
"Listen to me!" Her voice became startlingly serious again over the tears, "You can't go back out there!" And then more softly, "You'll...something, will happen. I had a feeling..."  
  
His features changed rapidly from uncertain concern and doubt to the smug haughtiness Kagome was used to; he stepped out of her reach coldly. "You're insane. I can't walk out of a battle just because you have a 'feeling.'" He started to turn with Tetsusaiga in his grasp. "Just stay here and watch. This rusted piece of junk has got to be good for something, and I'm going to find out what that is." With those parting words, he leapt off the edge of the bone and soared off towards the noise of Sesshomaru waiting below for him at the bottom of the skeleton.  
  
Kagome scrambled after him until she was leaning precariously over the edge and staring down at the familiar scene of a frenzied red dot trying to combat an enormous demon monster. "Wait!" She called desperately, "You don't understand!" Realizing that he was beyond her voice, she bit her lip and felt a fresh onslaught of tears start in her eyes.  
  
A strange springy noise like the sound of a ruler being snapped just barely stirred her attention, but she still didn't bother to look at the arrival of Myouga the flea on her shoulder, even though the fact that he hadn't run away for good already was a bit of a surprise. "Lady Kagome," his small, congested voice drifted up to her ear, "What is this feeling you speak of that troubles you so?"  
  
Kagome couldn't respond, her eyes were fixed on the two brothers below her, but had she been able to, she would have whispered, "I don't know..." All that she was certain of, all that she could gather and assume from the feeling she had gotten was that something truly awful would happen if the fighting persisted very much longer. Something truly awful that would happen to Inuyasha.  
  
The said half-breed's voice suddenly bellowed up to them from the ground in a fierce warning. "Climb!" He shouted, "Quickly!"  
  
Kagome hesitated in confusion for a second before Myouga's voice announced the meaning of Inuyasha's command. "Poison fumes!" He cried; and then he was gone, scampering up as fast as he could move.  
  
She looked around blankly for a moment longer, still puzzled, and then saw that there were indeed luminous green fumes curling up the walls, and they carried an acrid, burning scent that Kagome reeled from even when she was still far above it. After coughing briefly into her arm and looking down apprehensively at Inuyasha, she started to climb, feeling that Inuyasha was right; she was more helpful alive than dead.  
  
  
  
Forceful blow after blow rang in her ears and made her flinch often. The sounds of bones being scattered and crushed, and walls being destroyed fiercely pulled at her heart. Kagome did her best to pursue Inuyasha's order, but soon found that she was frozen in place, just listening to the deafening noises repeating themselves. Her bleak thoughts stretched out to Inuyasha, and the combination of guilt and foreboding anxiety made her turn her head down into the green sea. She shivered, and then began to lower herself. 'I have to help him...' She thought, 'Somehow, I have to help!'  
  
Before Kagome was able to take more than a step and a half down a flurry of racing red caught her painfully in her waist and she was soon being dragged upwards at alarming speeds. Inuyasha was panting as he carried her up, and his skin was an unhealthy shade due to too much exposure to the poison. Kagome gripped him tightly, relieved for the moment that he was at least still in relatively good condition...But the disconcerting fear still had not left her completely yet.  
  
Light started to fade into their sight, and in a matter of seconds they emerged together out of the mouth of the skeleton into the strange sunlight of the tomb. As soon as they reached the outside Inuyasha stopped so quickly that Kagome tripped forward and landed on her hands and knees some few feet away from him. Gasping slightly she hurried to her feet and rushed to the half-demon's side. "Inuyasha," she whispered frantically. Checking him over for wounds with a sinking sensation rapidly growing stronger in her heart, she found that he was covered with numerous scratches where his fire-rat clothing wasn't able to protect him adequately enough, including a large gash on his head that was quickly leaking blood into his once pure mane.  
  
Kagome's trembling fingers immediately tried to attend to his wounds, but he batted her away, panting laboriously for his efforts. "I'll be fine," he muttered softly.  
  
"No you won't!"  
  
His ominous yellow eyes swerved up to her and met her gaze evenly from beneath his disheveled bangs. In the look that he was giving her, as he breathed so raggedly and with so much obvious pain, Kagome felt that he was actually believing her feeling...That he knew what it might mean, even if she didn't, and that he wasn't afraid to meet it. The look scared Kagome more than anything else, and although words weren't necessary, she still uttered quietly one last time, "Please don't Inuyasha..."  
  
He didn't respond, he didn't have too, and he wouldn't have any other opportunity, because Sesshomaru suddenly burst forth from the mouth of the skeleton, soaring above them before landing gracefully some ways away. Kagome noticed bitterly that Sesshomaru's elegant body displayed no wounds at all, not even the slightest scratch.   
  
Fumbling at first, Inuyasha stood up tall and proud as ever; he knew what his chances were now that he was so injured both externally and internally from the poison, but he would never admit them before an enemy. Sesshomaru stood before him, equally challenging, and his image beckoned his brother forth to fight.  
  
Kagome continued to kneel on the ground, and looked away when Inuyasha rushed back into battle, finding that she couldn't bear to watch him go because her premonition-feelings would surely overwhelm her.  
  
Jaken crawled out of the skeleton behind her and stood resolutely a few yards away cackling evil remarks to her about the state of her hero and his weapon. Kagome ignored his taunts with focused determination; her attention belonged entirely to Inuyasha and his fight.  
  
Inuyasha was standing only a little ways in front of Sesshomaru, holding Tetsusaiga grimly and moving as cautiously as possible around his enemy. His brother recoiled, not out of fear, but in preparation for an attack. In turn, Inuyasha stepped back to answer the threat nobly. He raised his sword and shouted, "Come on then!"  
  
In a flash, Sesshomaru leapt forward in an effort to crush Inuyasha beneath his two front paws, but he stepped to the side skillfully in time to dodge it and moved just as skillfully away from Sesshomaru. His brother followed him and tried the same attack again, Inuyasha escaping him in the same fashion.   
  
After a few tense moments the motion was tried a third time, and Sesshomaru was quick to snap to the right with is jaws. But instead of dodging in that direction, Inuyasha had gone to the left where he then took advantage of the fact that Sesshomaru's head was lowered to leap deftly onto the demon's neck. He clambered up onto his brother's face in seconds, despite the fierce opposition of Sesshomaru as he shook his head in an effort to rid himself of Inuyasha.   
  
With as much speed as the damaged half-breed could muster, he knelt down, and with a roaring cry, drove the rusted Tetsusaiga down deep into his brother's right eye.  
  
Sesshomaru howled in frustration in pain and reared his head back with such force that his brother was thrown off. He slammed into the ground hard and could only lay there for the pain that was attacking his body mercilessly at that moment. Inuyasha could hardly open his eyes, and so therefore he was not able to see the danger as Sesshomaru's paw came crashing down on top of his chest, pinning him to the ground and crushing him indefinitely.  
  
Inuyasha screamed in agony, and Kagome mimicked him from where she sat, quivering since the beginning of the fight. The feeling of deep, wrenching misery and grief nearly reached its peak in her at that moment as she watched Inuyasha's pain heighten dramatically. Jaken's cheers never reached her ears, she only had senses for Inuyasha.   
  
It seemed like a wicked nightmare then, as she watched his eyes narrow and muscles tighten. Her intense shivering stopped in an instant and all was still while she watched his efforts slowly begin to subside more and more...until he was simply lying on the ground with his eyes just barely focusing ahead of him.  
  
Sesshomaru stood growling for a few seconds more as a light flow of dark blood streamed out of his maimed eye from where his little brother had pierced it so viciously. Then, he removed his paw, and a bright red light shone from him as his body began to shrink gradually, until he was lost in a single sphere of red. When the light dissipated entirely he was left standing solemnly as he had been before in his humanoid form. He regarded his half-brother then, and slowly started to make his way forward.  
  
Kagome chose this time to return to reality. "No!" She screamed, and bolted towards the brothers as fast as she could. But Sesshomaru was already upon Inuyasha, who could do little more than stare at him with a burning, narrowed gaze that reflected his suffering in the form of intense anger. Almost gently, Sesshomaru lifted his brother's torso with one hand, and drew back the other for attack. "No, don't! Please don't!" Kagome's heart beat wildly.  
  
His claws raked the air once briefly in preparation for the final blow.   
  
"Farewell, little brother."   
  
With that, he let his hand rush forward and tear mercilessly through Inuyasha's flesh, burrowing deep into his chest only to emerge from his back shortly. Even more quickly, he ripped his hand back again, although this time his long, graceful talons were no longer so immaculate, but bathed in his sibling's blood.  
  
  
  
Kagome came upon them at the half-demon's last, fading moment. She had screamed when Sesshomaru struck him, and just as he was pulling his hand back and letting Inuyasha drop back to the ground, Kagome caught him in her arms, and instantly held him close to her.  
  
His lips moved ever so slightly in an effort to speak; Kagome was silent, and strained to hear him as his soft, cracking voice drifted to her. "I'm sorry..." Inuyasha whispered.  
  
Kagome stroked him gently, letting the burning tears fall onto him without hesitation. "Don't be..."  
  
"I'm sorry...that I couldn't protect you..." In his left hand, the momentarily forgotten Tensaiga pulsed as if with its own heartbeat.  
  
The light then faded out of Inuyasha's eyes, and his body ceased its struggle and went limp in Kagome's arms. She began to weep mournfully then, and buried her face in his silvery-white hair while still holding him dearly as if he might simply disappear out of her embrace at any moment.  
  
Sesshomaru watched them silently for only a few seconds before his interest died out and his attention was restored to the sword. As Kagome hung over the body of his dead brother, Sesshomaru reached out for the weapon with a smile on his lips. The wonderful sensation of triumph was almost too much; to finally achieve his goal, to be able to hold his most precious Tetsusaiga in his own grasp...  
  
As soon as his fingertips grazed the hilt of the sword brilliant blue flames sprouted around his hand and showered his flesh with waves of pain. He drew back immediately with a cold, unwavering stare fixed on the Tetsusaiga. His fury was almost great enough to make him lash out. It was impossible...Impossible that the Tetsusaiga would refuse him, not now when it was lying right in front of him!  
  
"You don't deserve it anyway."  
  
Kagome's bitter voice interrupted his thoughts. Sesshomaru's icy stare turned from the sword to the girl in an instant, daring her to speak again. Her head was lowered to him, and her eyes were still looking down blankly at the fallen half-demon still wrapped up in her arms. When she spoke, her words came to him from behind a curtain of dark hair that was hiding her face from the rest of the world.  
  
"What did you say...human?"  
  
She looked up at him slowly, with a new face that burned with an intense, quiet hatred. The loathing in her gaze was something he had never seen on one of her race. It seemed far too controlled and dangerous to be real...  
  
"You don't deserve the sword," her voice began to rise steadily until she held a firm, silencing tone, "that was meant for Inuyasha."  
  
Sesshomaru's rage got the better of him at that time, and he struck at Kagome with demonic speed. Before she could even blink he had his hand wrapped around her throat and his talons were ripping her delicate skin. Kagome cried out in pain softly, and again the Tetsusaiga pulsed. This time, however, it did not go unnoticed. Sesshomaru's grip slackened in his momentary shock, and they both turned to regard the seemingly lifeless weapon.  
  
Yet as soon his fingers left her throat, Kagome moved again. Her upper lip curled in a snarl, and she raised her hand in a motion to hit Sesshomaru as hard as she could possibly manage... Kagome knew she was dead, she knew that we would kill her as soon as she let her hand fall, but she didn't care. He would kill her no matter what... She was just sorry that she couldn't do more to avenge Inuyasha's death. All that Kagome could think of, all that she was possessed by was a new, blinding, thundering anger that filled her entire body.  
  
In a flash, while Sesshomaru's head was still turned, Kagome let her hand fly, aiming its palm for the demon's cheek while it was to her. It carried all of her strength, and it sailed through the air with flawless precision...  
  
Her wrist suddenly stopped, though not by her own will. Sesshomaru glared at her with dangerously narrow golden eyes that glinted with wild anger. In his right hand he held Kagome's wrist in a burning hold. His claws glowed a hazy green as he pressed them into her flesh. She turned away in pain and stifled a scream by using her other hand to cover her mouth. "You dare..."  
  
In a flash he had ripped her remaining hand from her mouth and held it in a searing grip as well. Bringing both hands together he wrenched her forward to him so that their faces were only inches apart. For agonizingly long seconds he held her before him, slowly burning the flesh of her wrists until he felt Kagome's blood begin to flow freely from the wounds.  
  
"I will make you regret that, human." Abruptly he released her and allowed her to snatch back her hands and hold them to herself in misery. "You've chosen your fate now." He observed the blood that covered his hands, the blood of both the girl, and his brother. Collecting a bit of dirt from the ground in between his fingers, he used that to scrub away the excess liquid that covered his flesh.  
  
After finishing this task, he once again looked over the small human girl before him. She remained hunched over, trying to prevent too much blood from escaping her body from the burns on her wrists.  
  
"You are able to hold the Tensaiga."   
  
She still did not look up. It appeared that she was crying, and once again her eyes were on the lifeless Inuyasha.   
  
"You shall carry it then, for now."  
  
Kagome's face darted up to him suddenly. She growled low in her throat and glared with fury more venomous than before. "I will never carry it for you..."  
  
  
  
He struck at her again and caught the side of her head in a painful hold. Standing up, he lifted her with him by her hair until they were both on their feet, facing one another coldly. Sesshomaru lowered his head to her eye level, "You will do it, or I will destroy the village you abide in."  
  
Here eyes became wide and vengeful. "You wouldn't..."  
  
His unwavering golden eyes were her only answer.  
  
She bit her lip with uncertainty, faced now with her inescapable fate. Kagome had never imagined that Sesshomaru would go to such ends for a mere sword. Not that it was below him to do such horrible things, it was that she hadn't thought of him as being able to understand the emotional value of the village to her. Kagome didn't know he had the ability to see that compassionate side of human nature...and she was disgusted by that ability. She would have had him be unknowing of it, not understanding of it.  
  
Tears slipped out of her eyes again. She realized that whatever life she now had, short and fleeting as she knew it would be, was with Sesshomaru.  
  
He in turn realized that he had defeated her spirit, and promptly released her in an almost violent fashion. "Lift it."  
  
Slowly, she knelt down in shame near Inuyasha's body as she reached for the Tetsusaiga. "I'm sorry," she whispered to him briefly.  
  
  
  
Her small fingers clung numbly to hilt of the sword as she carefully brought it up. Now holding it with both hands, she stood up slowly and faced Sesshomaru with a look of having been crushed, forever.  
  
The previously silent Jaken who had been standing ignored by their side for some time hurried forth with his staff at his lords bidding. Lifting the two heads together, he summoned a portal leading out of the tomb and trundled past them into the swirling vortex.  
  
Sesshomaru looked to Kagome as her signal to follow the creature. She hesitated and observed Inuyasha's body one last time. She knew it would be useless, and possibly costly to argue taking it with them for a proper burial, so she had to be satisfied with this painful farewell. His hair and clothing were disturbed by the wind created by the portal, and made him seem noble and elegant, a true warrior. Kagome gasped in the middle of a sob because the sight was so hauntingly beautiful.  
  
The elder brother suddenly caught her eye as well, and for a moment she might've forgotten that he was Inuyasha's murderer. He was also watching his sibling's body with a cold stare, one that was devoid of emotion but didn't necessarily present a look of smug victory or disgust. Just quiet observation, like an ignorant onlooker. Then he stirred and turned towards the portal again, as if to cue her that it was time to leave him to rest. Kagome turned reluctantly.  
  
'I would have loved you, Inuyasha...'  
  
***  
  
That be the end of the first chapter boys and girls. Spring break is bliss, let's see if I can get to writing more in this next week. Oh, and we're going to assume that it would still be impossible for Sesshomaru to pick up the Tetsusaiga by wrapping it up in a piece of cloth or something. I mean, come on, would a bit of cloth be enough to break a spell? I don't think so. 


	2. Beware of Me

I've had a wonderful idea. Wonderful, at least to me. You see, I absolutely adore the Kill Bill movies, I mean, I think they're just great. And if I could have done it gracefully enough, I would have written a Kill Bill fanfiction. But the only way I thought I could do that was by making a sequel or something, and I just felt that there was no way I could have pulled that off. So I've decided to do something like what I did with Flower Blooming, and base this story on the plot of Kill Bill. It's a great way to relieve stress, and I think it's so much fun to do, so I'm going to try it out. But, that means that if you haven't seen Kill Bill Volume 2, or you haven't seen either of the films, and you want to, and you don't want it spoiled, don't read this. Seriously, I'll be giving away bits of the plot all over the place. It won't be exactly like the Kill Bills, but certain aspects of it will be the same. I'm just going to try and have fun with this project.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill, or Inuyasha, or anything related to either of them.  
  
***  
  
Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento Chapter 2-Beware of Me  
  
***  
  
Kagome bit down on her lip with terrible ferocity, begging it to bleed. She wanted it to bleed, she wanted to feel the pain and taste it too. She craved pain, and nothing was fitting. Previously she had tried abusing herself with brambles and sticks, but always his stare had met her try for try. The lingering threats he had promised regarding the village came back to haunt her whenever those burning gold eyes shot straight into her own.  
  
But this, this surely would bring release. He couldn't possibly see what she was doing now. Not in the dark, not in this dense place filled with sounds and smells to crowd his senses.  
  
At last she felt her small teeth driving through the delicate flesh of her lips, and she suppressed an instinctive cry as a small flow of blood trickled into her mouth. The sting of it passed over her body in waves of agony, and how she adored it. What she did not notice in the heat of the moment, however, was the tiny stream of crimson that strayed from the corner of her mouth.  
  
He flew down upon her in an instant, knocking her to the ground backwards and pinning her to the earth in a torrent of dead leaves and brush with a hand to her neck in a second. The impact made her body convulse and cough; only increasing the flow of blood as it oozed from her mouth.  
  
"Human," he whispered dangerously in the darkness that blanketed the forest, "What are you doing?"  
  
She gasped and her vision danced while his grasp tightened around her neck, "I-I was...I was trying to," Kagome would have lied, but the stifling lack of air corrected her thoughts into a chaotic mess, and besides, she knew that he would see straight through her. Finally, she answered him, "I was trying t-to cause myself...pain!"  
  
His grip slackened, "Do not try my patience," he told her coldly, before throwing her to the ground. As he watched her pick herself up staggeringly he understood that she was not lying, that she truly did want to torture herself. The thought was so ridiculous that it disgusted him. So much so that he was almost tempted to question her on her actions, but held back. For now, his own choice of actions should serve as warning enough for her not to try to pain herself again in his presence.  
  
They had broken free from the tomb of Sesshomaru's father only hours ago, and pathetic as her body was, Kagome had collapsed onto the ground in tears born of both physical and emotional strain in moments.  
  
His original intention had been to take the girl and Tetsusaiga to his westernmost territory, where he would have access to the resources that would be required in taming the sword. To secure the least amount of time spent on the minimal task of traveling into the west, he would have had to carry her, but obviously, from the looks of her condition, the girl would have surely died before they reached his main fortress.  
  
Therefore, he had taken her into the depths of the forests where their scents would be hidden in the foliage, and Kagome would be allowed a night of untroubled rest before her final journey. Because Sesshomaru had no plans which concerned keeping her in the realm of the living after she had fulfilled her purpose for him. Jaken, meanwhile, had been sent ahead, to make arrangements for their arrival.  
  
He listened to her silently in the black shades of the night as she stirred among the dry leaves covering the ground. Carefully, for lack of any more thought-provoking task, he analyzed this insignificant human creature. At the moment she deserved some credit, however minute it was, for surviving his punishments. But that was all he gave her, for there was too much stupidity in this mortal to possibly award her any of his respect.  
  
She was small, fragile, delicate... Everything that a female should be, and everything that attracted his critical judgment. How dare such a weak thing be allowed to walk upon the earth, to taint nature with her very existence. The most ridiculous, and what had sent his opinion of her into foul territory, the fact that she had wanted so dearly to cause herself pain.  
  
Sesshomaru inwardly scowled. What would possess anything to make such a mindless move? He understood very well why she had done it, it was clear in her eyes. She wanted to escape misery by spreading it in herself. Drown out agony with yet more agony; how hideous, a fitting demonstration of her lack of strength. If she could not continue to live with reality for even a few hours after her experiences in the tomb than it was obvious how small she was.  
  
He sniffed the wind suddenly, in a routine check for any other foreign entities in the trees. In the process he caught wind of her scent. It was muddied by blood and decay, but the underlying smell of it all grasped his attention nonetheless. It was tolerable, for a human, but by no means up to his standards. She had a floral scent, nothing extraordinary, nothing particularly moving, but very average.  
  
Her appearance was the same. Fouled by wounds of a various assortment, and features that were contorted by pain and anger. However, one could still detect the pretty plainness under everything. Dark hair and pale skin, the same as almost any other member of her race. There was nothing fantastic about this human, nothing.  
  
The first rays of the sun would soon be showing on the horizon. At this light, he would force her to rise with the sword in hand no matter her physical strength. She'd had enough time to recover.  
  
***  
  
Kagome held herself as still as possible. She couldn't bear the thought of attracting Sesshomaru's attention. She didn't want those fierce eyes on her, so reminiscent of Inuyasha's, and yet so violently different. Kagome knew that nothing would attract his gaze elsewhere, but she could still lead herself to believe that if she remained quiet and obedient, he wouldn't turn to her.  
  
Amazingly, a small shiver of rebellious power still moved in her veins, and Kagome knew very well that Sesshomaru couldn't be allowed to make Tetsusaiga his own. She would have to stop it somehow; if not because it was right and it would deter the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, because she knew it would have been Inuyasha's last wish. Somehow Kagome knew very solidly that in his last moments he had entrusted the task of guarding the sword from his brother with her, and she would rather die than let him down.  
  
Kagome was more intelligent than she let on, particularly in cases that eliminated the need for concern for her own well-being, or for anything else. The events leading up to the woods had stripped her of many things that would have otherwise held her back from fulfilling a mission. She was free to act as she chose without hesitation, except for the village.  
  
The village, it never left her heart. If she had anything left to live for, it was the village. Every last person that had ever meant a thing to her in the feudal era was bound ignorantly to a fate that spelled his or her own death if she did not cooperate with Sesshomaru. And she could not forget them; in fact it would be just as difficult for her to forget Inuyasha.  
  
Torn, Kagome silently began to formulate a plan that might hopefully fulfill the needs of both sides of the equation. Somehow there was a way to destroy Sesshomaru's hopes of ruling the Tetsusaiga that would prevent him from annihilating the village, and she would find that way.  
  
An hour or more passed as Kagome sat balefully in the deep darkness, wrenching herself to pieces just trying to find a way to do what she needed to do... And then, it came to her.  
  
Kagome saw that the only possible way for her to kill Sesshomaru's dreams and keep the village alive was...to kill Sesshomaru himself.  
  
***  
  
The first light of morning had dawned softly on Sesshomaru and Kagome in the deep woods.  
  
Only a few hours ago Kagome had gradually settled down to make it appear that she had finally fallen asleep. And the temptation was great to do so, but she had to keep her timing perfect so as not to ruin the small plan that she had put together in her head.  
  
It was very risky, very primitive, and all in all very stupid. But to Kagome, it seemed to be her only option at the moment. And no risk was too great for her cause: avenging Inuyasha by doing his last bidding.  
  
The moment of truth, her first chance to put her ideas into motion, she waited for Sesshomaru to wake her.  
  
"Human," she heard him say through closed eyes, "It is time to leave, wake up."  
  
She made no response, pretending that she was either deeply asleep or deeply wounded. Both were good excuses for her insubordination.  
  
"Get up," he said again, voice tainted with disgust. She continued to lie against the tree in false exhaustion. She was waiting, waiting for him to move... Her fingers tightened just a little around the hilt of Tetsusaiga, which had been in her grasp through the night.  
  
Then, finally, she heard him walk towards her stiffly, and when he reached her he knelt down next to her. She almost held her breath as the time approached.  
  
The back of his hand impacted her cheek sharply. She winced in pain while her eyes flew open. A single moment of tense silence passed, and then Kagome whipped the aging sword around at Sesshomaru. Her blow was slow, but Sesshomaru did just what she expected him to do anyway. He caught the sword blade in his hand.  
  
Blue light and flames danced around his fingers and he promptly released the sword in surprise. Kagome leapt up to her feet while he was confronting the small stinging pain that drove him away from the Tetsusaiga and swiped at his neck at the same time.  
  
Again he brought up a hand to combat it, but once more the burning light sprang all around his flesh when it met the cold metal of the sword.  
  
Kagome grew afraid then; though she was hurting him, however minutely, and she was also driving him away, she was not hurting him severely enough as she had intended. Yet even so, when she had stood up successfully, she swung Tetsusaiga around a third time and prayed silently for better results.  
  
To her misfortune, Sesshomaru caught the blade again with yet even greater confidence, and as the blue pain was sparkling all around his hand he looked her in the eye and said firmly, "Stop this." His features were full of rage for her stupid protest, and he pushed her back by the blade forcefully.  
  
So forcefully, that she was thrown backwards with such force and anger that she was stopped only when her back slammed painfully into a tree. Thus she sank to the base of it, whimpering in agony with the sword falling out of her hand slowly.  
  
But even through the immense pain in her body, Kagome still heard and felt Sesshomaru approaching, and took action despite her injuries. Hatred, fear, and frustration for her failure built up inside of her. It raced to her heart and filled her with burning strength.  
  
'No...' She thought miserably. 'I can't die, not now...'  
  
He was almost upon her; surely he would destroy her now.  
  
'Not when I've failed him...'  
  
He was before her, and when she opened her eyes weakly she saw Sesshomaru standing just a few inches away. Gracefully, he dropped down on one knee next to her and took her neck in his grasp. His other hand pulled back, taunt and ready as a bowstring. His talons glowed faintly with a green light.  
  
"I will not tolerate this." He said dangerously.  
  
Kagome screwed her eyes shut tight, and her fingers tightened around the Tetsusaiga. She heard the hissing of the burning poison from his fingers dropping down into the leaves. It couldn't happen. She couldn't die.  
  
"No!" Kagome shouted suddenly, and at the same time she threw up the Tetsusaiga to protect herself. A vibrant lavender light came burning out of her body, just as it had come when Mistress Centipede had held her in its grip of death. The light became beautiful and blinding, and shone all around her.  
  
Sesshomaru released her neck in shock, but not in pain...Because unlike the occasion with Mistress Centipede, Kagome's searing, pure energy was not directed at a demon enemy. It was directed, in an honest accident because she was touching it and not Sesshomaru, at Tetsusaiga.  
  
The lavender light seemed to intensify for a moment and there was a sudden noise like the shattering of glass. Kagome opened her eyes with a small gasp, as Sesshomaru shielded himself from wayward shards of metallic bone. The Tetsusaiga had been destroyed.  
  
She watched breathlessly as pieces of the legendary sword went flying in every direction. A single sliver suddenly buried itself deep into her shoulder. Kagome cried out in pain as it went tearing through her flesh, and then darkness crept across her vision, shutting out the still glimmering light.  
  
***  
  
A scent was in her nostrils, a feint, but powerful scent. It was strange, like decaying flesh, or even saltwater. Kagome stirred a little. Every limb was sore.  
  
As she moved, trying to guide herself into a sitting position, she felt a terrible burning sensation in her right shoulder. At first it bothered her, because she couldn't imagine what it could possibly be, and then it all came back to her.  
  
The sword!  
  
She gasped and sat up, eyes wide. Her shoulder was still filled with sharp agony, but she ignored it and put a hand over the wound soothingly only to find that her sleeve was wet with blood, which explained the smell.  
  
Kagome looked around frantically, trying to locate Sesshomaru in the forest. The sky overhead was gray and overcast, how long had she been out?  
  
Dimly, she struggled to her feet by using the tree she was propped against as a support. According to her range of vision, Sesshomaru was nowhere in the near vicinity.  
  
Kagome shivered, he couldn't have disappeared. There was no way in hell that Sesshomaru would have possibly allowed her to live after she had destroyed the Tetsusaiga. Yet here she was alive, breathing, unharmed.  
  
But there was still an eerie quiet in the trees. It was deeply unsettling; there was no movement, no noise at all. No birds sang, nor did any insects fill the silent void. Kagome took a staggering step hesitantly, afraid to break the quiet.  
  
However, nothing could have possibly shattered the silence more frighteningly than the scream that suddenly rent the air. It had been a scream of incredible pain, burning agony. A scream of death...and it had come from the direction that the village lied in.  
  
Kagome shivered in fear, but her nervous concern far outweighed her fright, and she began running and stumbling haphazardly through the trees, eager to reach the village to help in any way that she could. Or to receive help, because she felt the flow of blood pouring from her shoulder increasing.  
  
Her surroundings dragged by slowly as she heaved herself through the forest. Every step brought her more pain, but it also brought her more dread. Kagome could not will herself to expect anything but the very worst.  
  
Panting, she finally reached the crest of a long, high hill that she had been climbing, and stood looking down into the valley that cradled her small village. It was still, and silent, and she was so high above it that for a while Kagome couldn't make out any details except that it seemed just the way she left it; if not a bit more tense than usual.  
  
And then she saw it, a corpse. The corpse of a village maiden, her limbs sprawled, held in her last position of death and pain. She lay in a pool of her own crimson blood.  
  
"No..." Kagome whispered, "Please say it's not true." And she proceeded to sprint down the hill, ignoring her own pain as much as she could.  
  
She entered the village after only a few seconds, and passed the dead woman with a look of grief and denial. Kagome slowed to a walk then, and began wandering into the heart of the crowded buildings apprehensively.  
  
Bloody bodies appeared one after another in her path. Men, women...children. Kagome put a hand over her mouth as her eyes began to shine with tears. "Oh no..." She continued to say softly, unable to bear it.  
  
"Kaede," she suddenly said firmly. Kaede had to be alive, she had to be alive. If anyone could have survived, Kaede would be the one. Her thoughts drifted away from the massacre around her, teaching her to be unfeeling for the moment toward the dead villagers around her. Breaking into a run once again, Kagome's feet splashed in puddles of blood as she went, seeking out the familiar hut she needed to find.  
  
"Kaede!" She called. She didn't care if anyone heard her. She didn't care if the one responsible for all the death heard her.  
  
At last, after stepping over dead flesh everywhere, Kagome saw Kaede's building looming before her. As she was still calling the elderly priestess's name, she crashed into the small, one-room home, expecting somehow to see her mentor of only a few days comfortably cooking something over her fire as usual.  
  
What her eyes met, however, was the image of a bloody murder. Red liquid seemed to stain everything, and Kagome was struck still in silent horror as she tried to process it all. Her strength would not allow her to go any further into the building, and so Kagome turned around and dashed as far away from the hut as possible.  
  
She didn't run long before she came upon an open area. The very outskirts of the village, nearest to Inuyasha's forest. Kagome was prepared to seek refuge from the unbearable wreckage around her in the well, in her own time, but before she could make it any farther towards the forest, a form made her stop.  
  
A sleek, graceful form, clothes and immaculate silver hair carried by the wind slightly. His back had been to her when she was running, but now that she had stopped, Sesshomaru turned towards her slowly, still at a distance.  
  
"You did it..." Kagome whispered to herself quietly as he started to walk towards her in a predatory fashion. "You killed all of them!" Her voice was high-pitched with tears.  
  
"Yes," he answered her coldly. "A fitting punishment for your unforgivable destruction of my Tetsusaiga."  
  
He was nearly upon her, and Kagome could feel her anger swelling inside of her. Anger, not grief. There was no room for grief now. That was not what Sesshomaru should be assigned. Grief was for the villagers, for their children, for every one of them that had suffered because of him.  
  
Kagome clenched her fingers into fists and felt the familiar power of the vibrant light course through her veins. Unforgivable? What she had done? She was unforgivable?!  
  
"You monster!" she shouted at him, and her power tore out of her like a storm again. She was not afraid this time; this time Kagome was furious. She was not going to let her strength be weaker for her insignificant fear. She would be hitting a more worthy target than Tetsusaiga.  
  
And so she did. Her light enveloped Sesshomaru, blanketed him in a shroud of powerful, burning strength. She would purify his soul if she could. But what Kagome didn't realize was that Sesshomaru was blinded by as much hate as she was, and he would have none of her petty attempts to destroy him.  
  
He threw off her forces suddenly, though not after experiencing damage himself. Numerous cuts dotted his body, leaving his clothes unmarred, but painfully splitting his skin. A single deep scratch had torn his cheek. Blood appeared through the silk of his shirt, and he growled.  
  
"How dare you..."  
  
Kagome, meanwhile, was brought to her knees. Her attack had drained her of most of her strength, as small as it had been to begin with, and now she was paying for it. Her old wounds had all reopened, and were bleeding profusely.  
  
Sesshomaru looked the epitome of wild, dangerous rage. To have been harmed, by a human. Although she obviously controlled powers that were extraordinary for her species, she remained a human, and she had dared to defy him in such a reckless fashion. His hatred for her only intensified, and he once again resumed stalking towards her.  
  
Kagome saw that her killer was approaching, and saw also that she had to get to her feet and run. There was nothing more that she could do now, she had to make a dash for the well. Using her very last reserves of strength, making her injuries even worse, she struggled to stand up. When she finally did, Kagome ran again. She ran from him.  
  
Her steps were pitiful and week, and she could barely support herself, but Sesshomaru was bent on hunting her slowly like an animal, and so she at least had a little bit of time on her side.  
  
So she moved as swiftly as she could towards the well, trying to overcome everything again. Sesshomaru she knew could very possibly catch her before she made it, but she had to do everything she could to avoid that.  
  
Eventually, Kagome reached the edge of the forest and began tearing through the trees. The well wasn't very far into the woods, she knew it wasn't, and so she kept that in mind as her wounds became more unbearable and Sesshomaru continued to come after her.  
  
Just as she heard his steps gaining as he broke into a slow run, she saw the Bone Eater's well up ahead, looking like a beacon of hope for her.  
  
Kagome strained forward to it, pushed herself to the end, and finally collapsed over its edge just as Sesshomaru also entered the clearing.  
  
She lay panting for a few seconds, and then turned and looked at him over her shoulder. A glowing red light was hovering around him like an aura. He was gathering his energy to strike her a final time. Kagome panted and tried to drag herself over the edge.  
  
"You will die now," he said as she focused all of her effort on her last task. "For such crimes against me." His red aura then ignited about him like a flame, and roared towards her.  
  
Kagome held her eyes shut and finally pressed herself over the edge of the well. She felt her body sink into the darkness, and heard the bolt of energy pass over her head and destroy the well.  
  
Then she hit the hard ground and felt herself slip out of consciousness again.  
  
***  
  
Kagome looked up through blurred vision. Everything had a strange haze that didn't fade for many minutes. When she could finally see things clearly, she realized that she was lying on her back in a cold place; on the ground.  
  
She was in the well, and from the looks of the shrine roof above her head, in her own time. Everything hurt, and she had great difficulty breathing, but Kagome knew that if she chose to remain in the well she would certainly die.  
  
So she tried to lift herself up as gingerly as possible, and wheezing, reached for the ladder by her head. Very slowly, she began to climb, one step at a time.  
  
When Kagome reached the top of the well, she lifted herself out of it after exerting much force and effort, and almost toppled over when she reached the ground outside of it. The steps before her leading to the doors of the well house looked to be another great feat, but she moved towards them nonetheless.  
  
She didn't notice as she stumbled up each step that only the very lowest bit of wood in the well was the same she remembered from the Feudal era, the rest was new and polished, modern wood from a modern time.  
  
Kagome managed somehow to drag herself up the steps, but it had robbed her again of her strength, and so feeling that she had come far enough so that someone would be able to find her, she opened the doors of the well house and fell to the ground.  
  
There she lay, panting, when suddenly she noticed that someone was standing right in front of her. She could see their feet from where she lay; they were just near her face. Slowly, she raised her head to see the rest of the person.  
  
Sesshomaru stared down at her coldly, dressed in clothing of her time, but not looking any less furious than when she had seen him last.  
  
*** 


	3. Twisted Nerve

Hope you like it. I don't really care if you don't though...because I'm having lots of fun.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill or Inuyasha, or anything related to either of them.  
  
***  
  
Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento Chapter 3-Twisted Nerve  
  
Kagome cried, she wept on the cold cement ground and cried in misery. How was he here?! How was it possible!  
  
Sesshomaru looked down at her coldly, not saying a word, and then he knelt down beside her and produced a kerchief from inside his jacket. Carefully, he lifted her head and began dabbing at the bloody scratches on her face.  
  
At first she resisted, making soft noises of protest and trying to free herself from his grasp. But he wouldn't have it, and eventually fixed her with a hard, silencing stare.  
  
"You must be wondering how I am here." He said while she cried and he continued to treat her wounds with the cloth.  
  
She nodded a little, but that was the only answer she would give him.  
  
"Try and look at me Kagome," there was no kindness in his tone. She obeyed him silently, letting her eyes rove over him from she lay on the ground. "Do I look any different?"  
  
The crushing despair she felt, the agony of knowing that after all that she had just been through, he had somehow found her again was almost too suffocating to let her think clearly, but Kagome did notice many things different about him...His clothes, the fact that he called her by her name. And it couldn't have been possible for him to follow her through the well; he had destroyed it for one thing.  
  
She nodded again.  
  
"Then surely," he massaged her eyelid with the kerchief gently, "You must have reached a conclusion by now."  
  
Kagome found her voice, it was cracking and small, but Sesshomaru still heard it, "You...you've lived this long..."  
  
"Lived?" He said bitterly. He seemed much more talkative than he had been in the feudal era. "I wouldn't say that Kagome. I've waited, for you."  
  
"How did you find me?" she asked in a very meek voice.  
  
"How did I find you in this time you mean? I have my ways. As to how I knew that you'd traveled through time when you escaped me five centuries ago...I don't suppose you realized then that the elderly priestess was still alive."  
  
"Kaede..." Kagome felt crushing grief then. If she'd just advanced a little farther into the old woman's hut...she might have found her still alive. If she'd just gone a little farther, Sesshomaru wouldn't have known, he wouldn't have found out from her, he wouldn't have sought her five hundred years later...  
  
And what was it that made Sesshomaru even bother? Why was she worth it? She voiced her question faintly, "...Why?" Everything was so confusing and blurry at that moment; Kagome could hardly feel anything but her own remorse for her situation.  
  
"Because, I told you that what you did to me was unforgivable."  
  
Her anger came rising up to her again, and she could only cry. There was nothing else for it, she only had the strength to cry, and everything was so terrible, so awful just then that she didn't want to do anything but cry.  
  
"And so," he continued, "I am going to punish you, Kagome, as I said I would. But not with death. Not yet."  
  
She shivered, trying not to picture what he'd very possibly spent five hundred years thinking of as punishment for her. Kagome wouldn't have it, she hadn't deserved punishment in the first place, he'd always been the one who deserved punishment. Yet still she had been disciplined, and disciplined enough. He could kill her now, for all she cared.  
  
"No..." Kagome whispered, still weeping.  
  
"I expected you to say that," he said dryly. "And so I have prepared for it. Should you try and resist me Kagome, I will kill your mother, brother, and grandfather. How do you feel about your decision now?"  
  
She would've screamed if she could. Now he had trapped her, there was nothing she could do, absolutely nothing. There was no way in hell that she would allow her own stubbornness to be the death of her loved ones. And it made her so frustrated, so furious that she wanted to scream and tear Sesshomaru apart. She would have done it in a heartbeat if she'd had the strength and power.  
  
He took her angry silence as a signal of compliance, and suddenly began lifting her gingerly. She didn't make a move of rebellion; just let him put his hand under her knees, and another under her back. Her face rested in the crook of his neck, and she still sobbed softly.  
  
***  
  
Kagome next awoke in a pristine white bed, in a gray room without windows. There was a brown oak dresser to one side, and mirror. Then there were two doors on the opposite end of the room as the bed.  
  
That was as far she could see from her location on her back amidst the sheets and comforter of her little bed. She didn't know where she was, but she remembered what had happened.  
  
Kagome had fallen asleep from exhaustion sometime after Sesshomaru had helped her enter a black car. They had been driving somewhere, and their chauffeur had been a beautiful woman with long black hair and deep brown eyes. Kagome remembered that those eyes had been filled with hatred.  
  
Then her mind traveled back even farther, to when she had found Sesshomaru waiting for her outside of the well house. Every word that they had each said, every move they had both made; his sickeningly obtuse gesture of wiping at the bloody scratches on her face with a white kerchief.  
  
For a moment, Kagome thought that maybe it had been a dream, a vision sent to her in her state of pain and weakness. Perhaps now she was truly in the hospital, far away from any trace of Sesshomaru. Then she turned her head, and lying on a small nightstand by her shoulder was a white square of cloth; it was stained in some places with blood and grime.  
  
Kagome then began to cry again, alone in her gray room.  
  
***  
  
Sesshomaru came to her later on that day. He entered the room and sat down on her bed near her.  
  
"You've been asleep for two days." He said calmly.  
  
She snarled at him, "What are you going to do to me?"  
  
He regarded her very quietly for a moment, watching the anger and hatred burn in her eyes. As he did so, he tried to control his own. "I'm going to make you better," he finally said.  
  
"How?" She spat viciously.  
  
His eyes narrowed at her insolence, "You will understand later."  
  
With that he rose and left, concluding the very brief conversation. Kagome whipped to the side as he was closing the door to face the wall. Sesshomaru then added, "Do not try to bring out the rage I feel for you Kagome, and I assure you that it is very great. For if you do, you will no doubt find the consequences of such a move to be very bad for your survival. Or your family's, for that matter." And then he closed the door softly behind him.  
  
***  
  
Kagome rested in bed again for the rest of that day and night, and then in the very early morning a nameless stranger came out of nowhere and shook her awake.  
  
The girl refused to say anything to her except for a few commands now and then. She told Kagome to get out of bed, and then gave her a set of white clothes. White pants that ended halfway down her shins, and a white shirt. Both were made from rough silk. There were also two plain black shoes. The girl instructed Kagome to put the outfit on, and then told her to follow her.  
  
Kagome tried very hard to get any sort of information from the girl. Who she was, why she was in her room, what she had to with Sesshomaru, where she was. But the girl wouldn't tell her a thing.  
  
She followed the girl out of her room, and found that there was a long hallway before them that stretched in either direction. There were doors all along it, but they didn't appear to be on a quest to inspect any of the doors, so Kagome did her best to stifle her curiosity and confusion. They turned many corners together, and traversed many passageways, and after moving through the white-walled interior for some time, they finally stopped at a door.  
  
At this point, the girl left Kagome, and though Kagome tried at first to go after her, the girl would simply stop and point at the door. She was like a robot, unfeeling, unresponsive, annoying, and frustrating.  
  
Finally Kagome opened the door herself and stepped in. There was a room with brightly polished wood floors before her. It was vast, a very peaceful, wide-open space. Standing in the middle of the room was Sesshomaru; and standing next to Sesshomaru was a structure bolted into the ground made of two solid pieces of wood situated next to each other, with a stiff board set in between them.  
  
Kagome felt rage grow in her heart, and thought once about running away from him down the intricate passageways before she remembered his threats concerning her family.  
  
"Come here," he commanded shortly. He was dressed casually, nothing like herself. With plain jeans and a loose black business shirt. He had rolled the cuffs to his elbows, and it was unbuttoned a little at his neck.  
  
She obeyed him and walked to him until they were very close to each other.  
  
"Now Kagome, I am going to train you." He said suddenly.  
  
"Train me?" She asked with a bitter laugh.  
  
"Yes," he replied, ignoring the sarcasm in her question. "I am going to turn you into a very deadly fighter. And through this experience you and I will share, you will not resist, nor will you show me weakness. From this moment on, you are to be strong, and powerful. You will not refuse my requests, and you will not question me with insult or rebellion."  
  
Kagome's eyes narrowed, "This is my punishment?"  
  
"This is part of it." He then indicated the wooden structure at his side. "Stand in front of the board," he ordered.  
  
She moved in front of it.  
  
"Now hit it, with all of your strength."  
  
Kagome gave him a mystified stare for only a second before she slapped the board with all of her hand.  
  
He shook his head, "With your fist."  
  
Kagome pounded her fist against it, and flinched in pain. Sesshomaru stepped in next to her, and demonstrated. He set his fingertips to the board first, and then punched it with enough force so that his hand emerged on the other side.  
  
She straightened herself, prepared to attempt what he had done, though she knew it would not be possible for her. He had to be making her do it to make her even more angry and frustrated. But Kagome still did it. She set her fingertips against the wood just as he had done, and hit the board.  
  
"Do it again," he said.  
  
She forced her hand into it, hard. It was very painful.  
  
"Again," he repeated.  
  
Kagome scowled darkly and pounded her fist into the board. This time as she withdrew her hand a bloody stain remained. She winced in pain and held her fingers close to her to examine the torn skin on her knuckles.  
  
Sesshomaru struck her violently and swiftly with the back of his hand in a rapid instant. It wasn't enough to severely injure her, but it did make Kagome reel and take a few shaky steps back from him. A stinging red mark was left on her cheek from where his hand had hit it.  
  
She choked back her tears and hissed minutely before giving him a malevolent stare that promised pain she could not deliver to him. He met her gaze evenly and narrowed his eyes, "Again," he said dangerously.  
  
She complied wordlessly, setting her fingers against the wood and slamming her fist against it.  
  
"Again."  
  
Kagome hit the wood.  
  
"Again."  
  
The little splash of blood on the board grew every time that her fist impacted it. He did not cease, and only drove her harder as he saw her tolerance growing. There were no visible results in the wood, but enough could be seen on her face and in her composure as she repeatedly pounded it mercilessly.  
  
He almost smiled at her; she wanted to tear him apart. In fact, for as long as he could remember, Kagome had always worn that look for him. Pure loathing, pure hatred, pure rage, pure blood lust. She wanted to kill him, and he felt his own danger in training her. Should she ever gain the upper hand, ever, there was no doubt in his mind that she would most certainly destroy him.  
  
It suddenly struck him as strange that he would remember her face in its pristine moments of absolute violence, even after five hundred years. He could only suppose that passion for revenge might do that to one's thoughts.  
  
***  
  
The discipline continued for days, then weeks, then years, never ending, and Kagome was expected still to perform tasks and duties befitting a regal creature. Never was she allowed to give into whatever injuries she sustained. When she questioned this in any manner Sesshomaru would quickly explain in a heated temper that pain was only to make her stronger, never weaker.  
  
And the pain was so agonizing that it fed anger into her endlessly. Every scratch, every tear in her skin, every bruise reminded her of Sesshomaru, and she would correct them as much as she would correct him. The misery of her wounds kept her from eating, as she could hardly ever find the strength after her sessions to eat. Sesshomaru forced her to take food every so often, when he felt that she might truly die of exhaustion. But otherwise, he was not hesitant to push her as far as possible, if only for the sake of experimentation.  
  
She bled each night, and so always as she retired to bed there were bandages awaiting her. Not bandages that would be wrapped for her, bandages that she would have to tie over her bloody flesh. There was no one in Sesshomaru's vast house that was allowed to even speak to her. Kagome was to perform every task of living herself, except for the minimal tasks that she would simply not have time for if she wanted to survive.  
  
She soon learned the purpose of her white clothes and bedding. It was so that she could be reminded of how much blood she was shedding, because red showed so vibrantly on no other color.  
  
And if she ever seemed to exhausted to move enough for an exercise in martial arts or weaponry, Sesshomaru would take her into a classroom in the vast house and school her in a variety of subjects. Language, history, etc...  
  
Everything that happened to her took place in Sesshomaru's great house. It was enormous, and as far as she knew was located somewhere just outside of Tokyo. It didn't have many windows, but Sesshomaru would sometimes take her outside for lessons on how to drive certain vehicles, of which he had many.  
  
Kagome also found out one day, to her great mortification, that Sesshomaru had somehow been able to gather the Shikon jewel together in the past five centuries. And he had it in his grasp, but he assured her when she looked so horror-stricken that he could not use it, and could barely even hold it, because the shards she had purified so long ago still survived within the rest of the tainted jewel, and until he had her transform them otherwise, things would remain neutral concerning that subject.  
  
Her life with Sesshomaru, as a whole, was terrible. Every day was a living nightmare for Kagome that only made her more furious. And this ferocity, unbeknownst to her, was making her all the more powerful. Each time she pounded her fingers into that board, willing it to shatter for her fist, she was inspired with anger that she had never felt before.  
  
It was enough to satisfy Sesshomaru. He was transforming this girl, bringing out her true colors, and her true colors were naturally more wonderful and extreme than anything else he had seen before in her. She would be far more reliable, far stronger. In his eyes, Kagome would be far more perfect.  
  
Perfect for a purpose that Kagome still didn't understand. She was never allowed to know why he was schooling her in such a brutal way. If she dared to ask, he would find some way to silence her.  
  
*** 


	4. Bang Bang

Well...I'm warning you now. Beware of lemonish content in this chapter.  
  
***  
  
Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento Chapter 4-Bang Bang  
  
***  
  
He struck at her with rapid speed, impacting her side. She doubled back only slightly, and eyes glowing with cold fire, struck back just as keenly. He dodged it, rightfully so. Sesshomaru would always have the upper hand, or so he intended. Never once to his knowledge had Kagome managed to inflict an injury on him.  
  
Sesshomaru watched her move, barking commands and critiques to her as they fought together. He ordered her limbs in various directions, throwing down her thoughts of hitting him squarely, or urging it. It was interesting how she could be manipulated in the heat of battle, although should she ever realize it she would be revolted. Regardless, Kagome was adept at following orders, though whether she could follow them accurately was another matter.  
  
"You're too low on her feet," He told her sharply, "Your enemy is above you now! Rise!" Kagome rose wordlessly from her bent position and thrust forward with her fist in hopes of shattering his jaw. His hand gripped her own effectively and threw her back. He had allowed a little more of his strength to show through then he'd intended, and she went staggering back. "You should not have been so troubled by that defense," Sesshomaru snapped.  
  
Kagome rushed back at him. She had long since begun to perspire, but did not pant or gasp for air. He had taught her that that was a last resort, to pant in front of an enemy. Perspiration at least seemed honorable, whereas panting like a common animal was truly despicable.  
  
Her left leg swung upwards to strike his side and he slapped it away with a side of his hand. Every movement she made he would match, and every blow they both made was fired with rapid speed. Sesshomaru watched her while she danced before him and against him, never once averting her eyes from his, but knowing still when to dodge or fall away from his attacks. Her eyes themselves were nearly frightening, so alive with blind anger.  
  
Kagome was getting better, he was sure. Sesshomaru wondered briefly how she would come to terms with her new image if she ever stopped to focus on anything but killing him. It would be a shock; that much was certain.  
  
But this was his revenge to her, for everything that she had done to him, Sesshomaru.  
  
Everything that he had thought of for five hundred years.  
  
He would pay her back, for making him obsess over her, and only her, for five hundred very long years.  
  
***  
  
The day that everything changed, Kagome had already spent six long years with Sesshomaru. She had grown up into an adult, and her sunny attitude had become serious when she was near him, which was almost always. She hadn't heard a word from her family, her friends, anyone. She hadn't talked to anyone but Sesshomaru; she had barely seen anybody but Sesshomaru. They seemed to always be in each other's presence, and it was becoming unbearable for Kagome.  
  
So one day, she let her temper get the better of her. They had been traveling together from one of her classrooms to the room with the wood floors, and she had been in a relatively healthy state. Sesshomaru hadn't put her through any physical training that day, and she hadn't suffered any major wounds for the past week.  
  
But her anger for him had never left her, and just as he was lecturing her in her pathetic weakness, she lashed out.  
  
"Am I that weak Sesshomaru?" she asked him coyly, stopping in the hall. "Was I so weak, when I destroyed your precious Tetsusaiga? Or when I attacked you in the village and you were harmed? Was I weak then?" He fumed, her words were simple, they could have been worse, but they still stung his pride because she had never once brought up such matters in the past six years, and neither had he. "Or," she continued, "Are you the one who is weak? Who has wasted five hundred years thinking of pathetic revenge for a single...human...girl?" She folded her arms then and dared him to speak.  
  
For six years they had both contained themselves in each other's presence, never letting their anger show in such a fashion as this for fear of what might happen. Nothing could be certain should they lose control. But here, Kagome had finally managed to tempt Sesshomaru into rage.  
  
Her daring insolence got the better of him and his temper suddenly. In a flash he had spun her to the side and slammed her forcefully against the wall, effectively pinning her there with his hands holding her shoulders painfully.  
  
Kagome gasped and as agony spread through her body. "How dare you...human," he hissed darkly.  
  
She stood motionless before him, so very close, and then her gaze eased up to him, burning just as coldly as ever before. The anger, pure hatred, malice in those eyes. Her upper lip rose in a snarl.  
  
Sesshomaru then realized the heat that radiated from her, heat that conveyed her ravenous hate; it enshrouded him in her anger. Once again his eyes traveled over her, the lithe body, a face contorted by evil intentions. A beautiful face that he had never forgotten for all of five hundred years. Sesshomaru doubted if ever even once she had left his thoughts. Always he thought of her, imagined her features in his mind, and pictured her with hatred as well. Hatred because in some way, he knew she had defeated him. He couldn't be rid of that defeat, and couldn't resist it any longer.  
  
In a moment he withdrew from her a little, taken aback by her form that seemed to him just emerging from out of his past. He saw her, Kagome, for the first time in centuries, and his absolute rage bubbled to the surface.  
  
He lashed out, jamming her back even harder against the wall as he threw himself against her. One hand pressed into the wall as well, and the other forced her head even closer to him as he almost violently embraced her with a passionate kiss.  
  
Kagome crumbled, but the anger never left her. She simply felt her body caving into him as his lips assaulted her own. Her torso began to fall only to have him catch her as his hand left the wall and returned on her lower back; the action was meant to lift her to him yet even closer, and the progress was made when her hips collided with his.  
  
He gently pulled her chin downwards, and she almost unconsciously responded to the motion and felt her mouth drop open. Sesshomaru was quick to let his tongue sweep into her caressingly.  
  
His hand on her back began to drift down as he finished on her mouth for the moment and parted to taste her neck; soon his fingers were on her upper thigh, still moving to her knee, where he lifted her leg to him so that she was partially open to his hips. Just as he moved forward in a thrust he bit the shell of her ear teasingly.  
  
"I hate you..." Kagome whispered faintly, unable to pull away from him.  
  
Sesshomaru suddenly swept her into a bridal hold, affixing her to his chest as he began to turn away. He was carrying her somewhere...His steps were hurried, but diligent. He was mindful of her; he did not want to damage her. Kagome simply rested against him as they traveled, seeing that she was suddenly too emotionally exhausted to move.  
  
They turned, entered a dark room. Sesshomaru placed her on a soft surface and leaned in to capture her mouth once more. Kagome felt her last reserves of strength fall, and all she knew was hate again as he began removing her jacket and she began responding to him while her arms reached up and linked around his neck.  
  
***  
  
Something was near to her. Something was very near to her. It was warm, and gave Kagome an odd feeling of security. Otherwise there were other sources of heat to attract her attention, like a notable blanket of sunshine falling across her exposed shoulders and chest. But not so much as this warm thing next to her.  
  
His breath sighed against her skin. His lips were on her forehead, parted there while he lay so still and motionless. Memories of the previous night flew back to her in an instant. All sense of security fled immediately and her eyes sprang open in panic.  
  
And there was Sesshomaru, breathing deeply while holding her to him in a loose embrace. He was sleeping, and looked very content. Kagome fought down a growl and ended up releasing it as a hiss. None of her passion for killing him had left her.  
  
She hesitated in his grasp and shivered in revulsion. Everything had happened the night before. And more importantly, she had let it happen. Kagome hadn't fought back a single moment as he'd conquered every shred of her, and here now she was conscious enough to truly regret it.  
  
Using every bit of her training to evade his demon senses, which she knew were keen, even sleep, Kagome inched out of his grasp, still mentally ruing each second of the evening they had spent together. Her arm was stretched across her chest, hiding herself from him should his eyes open. Modesty that had been nonexistent only hours ago had returned from out of nowhere to terrorize her now.  
  
Her heart beat wildly in her rib cage as she snaked away, pulling herself carefully out of the bed without letting her eyes wander from him for even a second. As she slid quietly from the comforter, she kept a bit of the white sheets clenched in a fist, holding it over her body as Kagome felt her flesh shiver in absolute horror.  
  
There was nothing that she could do now; none of what had happened could possibly be taken back. Tears stung the corners of her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. Her heart pounded so very fiercely that she was terrified of him possibly waking up at the noise to see her moving away.  
  
How could she, how could she even dare? Kagome had destroyed everything, wrecked everything. Nothing could be done. Truly shaking then, she took small steps backwards towards the door; not even bothering to collect her scattered clothes, the sheet would be enough. For now, she just had to get out. She had to leave.  
  
Hatred had been replaced with burning sadness. Kagome spun at the door and pattered out into the hall, leaving Sesshomaru asleep behind her. Once outside she instantly put her back to a wall and sank down to the ground. There she sat for many minutes, crying into her hands softly, unable to stop. The sheet was still twined around her frame and hid her from him yet.  
  
***  
  
After crying herself into submission while alone in the hall, Kagome gathered herself to her feet and began sprinting as silently as possible to her room. The bedding flowed out behind her gracefully while her dark hair bounced on her shoulders elegantly. Tears still swam down her face.  
  
It didn't take her long to reach the door she sought, and after ripping it open, Kagome bolted into the space and went directly to her drawers. She found some clothes quickly and threw them over herself without pausing for anything. Her fingers shook as she bound her hair up in a ponytail on the back of her head, and then she went about in search of a bag. Soon Kagome discovered a backpack and stashed some of her most precious treasures in it.  
  
It didn't take her long to pack, and ever weeping, Kagome flew out the door. She was leaving this life behind; there was now no room left for hesitation.  
  
Running again, she tore down the intricate hallways. Time seemed to drag while she moved forward. She panted, she did not run serenely. She didn't care about grace, she didn't care about anything. All that Sesshomaru had schooled her in had been stripped from her. She was running now like a hunted animal.  
  
All that tore through her mind were questions. How, why? They were tearing her up. What had happened? Why had she done it?  
  
And in perfect sync with the assault of questions came images from her memory of her night with Sesshomaru. His hands in the darkness, his mouth, his tongue, his claws, raking across her skin everywhere. Kagome pounded her head with her fists with a strangled cry in an effort to knock the memories out of her head. There were so many agonizing thoughts burning through her soul.  
  
After what seemed like hours of turning around corners and haunting empty halls, avoiding eyes that weren't even awake at the early hour, Kagome came upon the magnificent staircase she knew from her training and bounded down it in great leaps. Staggering into the main entrance room, she dashed out under the high ceiling and tumbled towards a large door to her left. She knew this place like the back of her hand.  
  
Behind it, Kagome found that she had a vast and varied choice of vehicles, and upon turning again to the left, pulled a pair of keys down from a rack hanging neatly on the wall. She rushed into the forest of parked cars and soon found what she was looking for. It was notably fast, and she remembered it vividly for its speed from her training. Kagome needed the fastest car at her disposal, because she needed to leave the place, as soon as possible.  
  
Leaping into it promptly, Kagome threw her backpack to the seat beside her and jammed the key into its slot, pressing on the gas pedal, willing the car to drive. She guided it out of its lot and drove it down the dark path before her; the automatic door opened gently and she passed out into the open air at a ferocious speed.  
  
As she flew down the roads, heading in the direction of the swarming Tokyo, tears continued to course down Kagome's cheeks. And an anger that had been dormant for the past twenty minutes was fighting to get to the surface.  
  
This act now left nothing to forgive in him.  
  
***  
  
Alone, in a dank room in a secluded motel, Kagome lay on the bed half- enshrouded in tangled sheets. Her hysterical sobs had been echoing around the small space quietly for nearly two hours now. Her hair was mussed and spilling over her as she writhed and twisted around in utter sadness.  
  
She hadn't quit moving, not for a thing, not for a single, thing. Getting to the dense and chaotic metropolis of Tokyo hadn't been enough. Entering the city couldn't quell her need to escape, and she didn't waste time in seeking out an airport and finding a flight.  
  
First, however, she'd abandoned her car in a small parking lot in a darker side of town, and from there she'd taken a bus, not a taxi, to the nearest airport. Covering her tracks was essential; there had been no doubt in her mind at the time that Sesshomaru would find her if she left a messy trail. She had no idea why he would seek her; she just knew that he would find her again if she were careless.  
  
Money was no trouble. Sesshomaru, whatever he did that earned him his huge sums, had entrusted her with access to a variety of sources for it. For a moment she had been a little afraid that he would realize she was missing and cancel all of these sources in an effort to keep her grounded in Japan. But for whatever reason, he still had everything open, and she was still able to exploit it.  
  
Kagome had quickly booked a flight in the airport. She didn't pay much thought to where exactly it was; it was simply the first listing that had caught her attention when she'd looked for the fastest, soonest outlets out of the country, and it so happened that it was Puerto Rico that she chose.  
  
It was a fortunate choice. Sesshomaru had schooled her in several languages. Another mystery. She couldn't determine what had possessed him to train her in so many different arts. But regardless, because of him, she was fluent in English, Italian, and most importantly for her particular destination, Spanish.  
  
Her flight had been long, but for the given distance, rather short. She'd had to change planes in Barcelona, and then it was a straight flight, and it gave her time to rest from her latest injuries. Kagome was having a great deal of difficulty walking now.  
  
When her plane arrived in San Juan, Kagome had instantly rushed to find a means of transportation, and eventually purchased a small Vespa at a dealer in the city. She'd taken the essentials from her backpack, and then discarded it in a river. Every move she made was shaky and hesitant; she had to do everything possible to hide herself. After that she purchased herself two new sets of clothes and a new bag to carry everything in. Then she drove out of San Juan in an air of dismay, though not with the same terror she had felt only about twenty hours ago in distant Japan.  
  
She drove for hours, and didn't keep track of the time except for the signals that the sun gave her. Eventually she passed into a more rural area. Very quiet, very out of the way, very insignificant. Kagome's stress had by then been muted enough so that she felt relatively secure in the region, and began to seek a place to stay in for a night or two, simply to sort out her emotions.  
  
Now she lay in a rundown motel, shivering in bleak depression; remembering again all that had happened with Sesshomaru. She relived each moment of twisted anger she had experienced in his presence. She felt her surges of hate rising and falling while her thoughts moved. And then for that instant, when he had pinned her to the wall with a kiss, it had all become meaningless.  
  
That had made her weep, but what had truly made her sob was when shortly after stewing over those memories Inuyasha had been called to mind. Dear Inuyasha...her true love of only a few days. Yet a few days with him had been enough to make her despise with livid passion everything about his murderer, Sesshomaru. A few stupid, giddy days spent adoring him quietly, shuffling her feet, blushing when he touched her. Just that much time with him had turned everything upside down the moment he'd died.  
  
His death was made her haphazardly destroy Tetsusaiga. And her reckless and accidental actions had been what had made Sesshomaru destroy the village in a fit of rage. His move had been what had made her first feel a taste of true hatred; when she had seen the bloody corpses of the villagers...and their children. Thus this moment of anger and sadness had been what had motivated her to unleash her power on Sesshomaru...to humiliate him, to taunt him. In an effort to escape she had jumped into the well, he had destroyed it. She had made to her time; he had followed her through the centuries. She had resisted him in misery and he had dangled the lives of her family before him. He had trained her for an unknown purpose; she had felt her anger burning. Then he had taken her. He had forced her under his power enough, and after that...she had run away.  
  
But a link was missing; why had he stolen her away that night? She had done nothing but touch on his nerves, as she did so often. Her punishment, however, was different. Kagome didn't even know if it was a punishment. There was no use denying that she had responded to him with as much passion as he had responded to her. Why then, had it happened?  
  
Remembering the promise he had made to kill her mother, brother, and grandfather, should she resist, Kagome felt another wave of grief wash over her. She could only hope that he would see the senseless violence of murdering them when he had already lost her.  
  
Poor Inuyasha...she had shamed his memory for the final time. There was nothing worse that she could have done to demonstrate her failure to him. Giving into Sesshomaru was the very lowest she could go.  
  
Kagome curled father into the sheets while she cried. For a second, she thought of praying for her family, but thought better of it. Surely, with so much destruction and loathing, there could be no one that would hear her prayers, much less answer them.  
  
***  
  
The worst is over. I know it was strange, but that's about as lemony as I get, snicket. Therefore, no need to worry about stuff happening in later chapters that's as involved as that was. 


	5. Your Sight

Hope you like it.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill or Inuyasha or anything related to either of them.  
  
***  
  
Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento Chapter 5-Your Sight  
  
***  
  
On the other side of the world, just as the sun was setting on the second day since Kagome had fled Japan, Sesshomaru stood by a window solemnly. Not a word passed his lips, nor did he move as he contemplated the events of the evening they had spent together.  
  
He was blank. There was absolutely no emotion for the situation. What should he feel for it? How could he be expected to? Though he had grown to accept the domination of humans in the past five centuries he had by no means forgotten their worthlessness. Their eternal inferiority to his dwindling kind. And then, just as his rage for a human girl (albeit a unique one) had reached his peak, he had done what he would have never expected himself to do.  
  
He had not killed her; he hadn't given her that kind of injury. He had been moved to a sort of vengeful lust. Not only that, Sesshomaru realized not long after he'd graced her with that first moment of passion in the hall that he had been living with the feeling ever since she had escaped him by disappearing into the well.  
  
One side of him considered it unbearable. It wasn't possible for him to try and refuse the fact that he had been the one to make the first move. He had been the one that had started it; she did not. Sesshomaru had given into an urge he had never before acknowledged, and even more shameful, it had been wonderful. Like release, having Kagome had been like satisfying a need he had felt for years. He had needed her.  
  
But it wasn't a need that might be connected to joy or love. He had simply needed her. Sesshomaru couldn't determine the motivation for such a need clearly now, because his thoughts were subdued and confused. His original emotions from before the incident were lost for the moment.  
  
Whatever had happened had happened, and it could not be undone now. Sesshomaru was almost glad she had left, though part of him wanted like hell to have her with him yet. If he could only be assured that she was not so affected by it as he was, he might feel less empty at least. His last resort then would be open to him; talking to her, perhaps even as an equal, if only to sort things out to a degree.  
  
But she had left, and Sesshomaru was certain that anger would come to him eventually. He would find a reason to be angry with her, maybe even to pursue her to wherever she had gone. Even though he had begun the situation, and even though he had practically forced her into it all, even though he knew that she had to be in as chaotic a state as he was, even though he had pushed her under his power...he still felt that revenge would have to be sought. He would realize that, however, at another time.  
  
Therefore for now, as an afterthought while he remained still and quiet by the window, he would not fulfill his original promise to her of destroying her family. As of the moment he was too withdrawn to care, and in the future he still might not follow through for a certain amount of time. Because in plots of revenge, secret weapons had to be used at appropriate times.  
  
***  
  
Kagome sifted through the threadbare records patiently. It took a few minutes, but she soon found what she was looking for. Gingerly separating it from the rest, Kagome withdrew the record, placed it in a small bag, and put it on the counter.  
  
"That will be twelve dollars please." She smiled kindly at her customer, a pleasant-looking elderly gentleman with silver-brown hair and smooth dark skin.  
  
His eyes wrinkled at the edges as he returned her smile politely and handed the fee to her. "You have a very interesting accent," Kagome rang up the purchase on the cash register, "May I ask where you are from?"  
  
"Oh," she said off-handedly, "Just someplace in Asia."  
  
"Where in Asia?" He inquired curiously, "I might know it."  
  
She became a little sly. He was obviously truly interested in wherever she was from, and he didn't appear to want to give up on the subject. So as Kagome reached across the counter to hand the old man his change and receipt, she said, "Laos."  
  
He nodded, "Laos, it must be very beautiful there."  
  
"Oh yes," Kagome told him sweetly.  
  
"Well," he said as he accepted his record from her, "I must say your Spanish is very impressive Miss...?"  
  
"Meyumi. Meyumi Tran. I was named for my mother. She was half Japanese. Have a good afternoon!"  
  
"That's very interesting, and you too Miss Tran."  
  
She waved him off, personally thinking about how increasingly easy it was becoming to lie to people. Though she usually stuck with a single story, the temptation to fool with people's minds had been present many times in her head when people asked about her accent.  
  
Yes, it was finally becoming easier to live with the lies, and everything else for that matter. Kagome felt in a manner of uncertain peace that she might've finally left her life in Japan behind. She no longer dwelt on the fact that Sesshomaru still had the Shikon, or that she had been with him for one night. She had even hardened herself against the memories of her family. Although they still meant the world to her, she understood that being close to them would only bring them danger. And Kagome had even started to ignore Inuyasha's memory as well. Realizing that there was nothing she could do now for him, that the Tetsusaiga had been destroyed, that he had died so many years ago, even to her; and even though Sesshomaru still did indeed have the Shikon, he would not be able to eradicate the shards of purity that still swelled inside it. And he would not be able break that purity and use it for one purpose or another without her.  
  
Puerto Rico was a beautiful place, and Kagome had peacefully settled in a rural town outside of Caguas about three weeks ago. It wasn't difficult to find work, because she had so many talents, like the ability to speak in several different languages. But in the end she had chosen a more discrete occupation. An occupation at all, in fact. She could have lived off of Sesshomaru's bank accounts forever, but she knew that would make her easier to trace, so she refrained and made herself more content by working nearly every day at a record store.  
  
Life was nice; she had to admit she could become very used to it after a month or two. It was so quiet and uneventful, nothing like growing up in Tokyo. And though many people smoked where she was, the air was still very fresh and clean, and Kagome enjoyed the warm climate.  
  
She lived in a little rented space in a nice house in town, and her landlord was very kind. In fact, everyone in the apartment house was kind to her, and at first it had made her a little suspicious because it was such a shock. Kagome enjoyed the location. Caguas was a short mile away, and she was planning on driving to the ocean one day. When she wanted to take a particularly long trip.  
  
Kagome smiled as she filed a record pleasantly. One of her favorite Spanish songs was playing overhead, and she cheerfully sang along under her breath. "Malaguena salerosa y decirte nina hermosa..."  
  
***  
  
The sun had only just recently revealed itself on the horizon. Kagome was leaning on the rusty metal fence that surrounded her small balcony. The morning was cold, so she had wrapped a blanket around her shoulders to keep warm. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and she was still in her pajamas. All in all, she appeared to be very comfortable and content. No one would have guessed at first glance that she had once felt such vengeful hate. Or still did...deep down.  
  
She adjusted her shoulders and walked back into her apartment. It was time to take a shower, she would have to be at work in an hour to help the owner, Lilly, open up shop.  
  
A strange uneasiness in her stomach stopped her in her tracks just as her hand was poised over the doorknob to the bathroom. It was a very strange, unnerving feeling. It wasn't emotional, not warning, not foreboding. Kagome felt for a moment that she was physically ill.  
  
It passed in a relatively short amount of time, and she simply shrugged it off and entered the bathroom. As she stepped into the shower after stripping off her clothes, the feeling returned, and passed just as quickly. Remembering that she hadn't kept track of her cycle, she assumed that maybe she was starting up again, and made a mental note to stop at a drug store and buy some provisions for the occasion.  
  
The little illness did not return all throughout the rest of her morning spent in her apartment. It didn't reoccur when she stepped outside and began walking to the record store, and it didn't come back even when she reached the store. In fact, as she was sweeping around the shelves and crates and counter, Kagome never once felt it again.  
  
And then, it happened. Lilly started talking to her casually at her elbow as she was unlocking the door.  
  
"It looks like it will be another hot day," she flipped the sign over, "I doubt if we will have many costumers in the heat. You can leave early if you'd like Meyumi."  
  
Kagome smiled, "Thank you, but I really don't mind. The heat hasn't stopped people from coming in before anyway-" Her words were interrupted by a sudden shift in the state of her stomach. She dropped the record she was holding and it clattered to the ground noisily.  
  
Lilly turned around, abandoning her keys in the slot on the door, "Meyumi? Are you okay?"  
  
When Lilly had turned around she had seen Kagome looking very disturbed. Her skin was an unhealthy shade, and her eyes were wide and unfocused. After a long while, she raised her head to Lilly mutely, and then turned and bolted towards the back of the store. Lilly followed after her, concerned, and still asking her if she was all right.  
  
Kagome ran into the small dingy bathroom they kept in the back and threw the door open. Lilly came in after her just in time to see Kagome hunched over the toilet, vomiting. "Oh my God," she chirped, "Meyumi, what's wrong?"  
  
Kagome's shoulders still heaved and shuddered for a few minutes before she was able to lean back and look Lilly in the eye. She gathered a handful of paper in her hand and covered her mouth with it while she talked. "I'm so sorry Lilly," she whispered, "I don't think I feel very well today."  
  
"No shit," Lilly said softly while she pulled a cigarette out of her pocket and jammed it into her mouth. "Why the hell didn't you stay home if you didn't feel well you crazy kid?" She was very sweet while she talked, intending no malice at all.  
  
Kagome shook her head absently as Lilly knelt down by her side and began rubbing her back soothingly. "I guess I didn't think it would get this bad..."  
  
Lilly lit her cigarette and ruffled Kagome's hair. Being twice her age and also a mother, she'd had experience with sick youths. "What do you think this is from?" She asked her quietly.  
  
"I don't know," Kagome replied.  
  
"Did you eat something you didn't like?"  
  
Kagome shook her head again, "I don't think so...Just what I always have, nothing really different."  
  
Lilly then seemed to hesitate, as if she had been considering saying something and then thought better of it. "Well," she finally said, "What a mystery. You'd better head home kid."  
  
She nodded, "Thanks Lilly."  
  
"Want me to come with you?"  
  
"No, really, don't trouble yourself...I think I can make it."  
  
"You sure?" Lilly pressed.  
  
"Yeah," and then Kagome began to carefully get to her feet, staggering just a little.  
  
Lilly helped her up, and got her things for her. Then she escorted her out the door and stood outside the shop watching her walk down the street for a while before turning back in and attending the counter.  
  
Kagome walked apprehensively, very unsure of what was going on. This sickness, somehow it didn't feel right. Already she felt it wearing away, and that was very strange. She supposed it was normal to feel better after throwing up, but...  
  
Just at that moment she passed a drug store and remembered her mission to buy some supplies. She walked in, confident that she would be able to make it without throwing up again, and wandered around looking for tampons. Eventually Kagome found them in a floral-pink isle. The cheery elevator music playing above couldn't have been more inappropriate for the moment of absolute horror she would feel in just a few seconds.  
  
For as she reached to pull a kotex box off the shelf, her eyes, by mere chance, spotted something that turned everything upside down in an instant.  
  
A pregnancy test kit.  
  
Kagome's hand fell and she teetered backwards. It...that couldn't possibly be the reason for her illness. It couldn't be! Her whole body shook uncontrollably as her eyes grew wide with terror. And then she ran. She spun around and ran out of the store in a blur and started sprinting down the street.  
  
Then she stopped and looked over her shoulder slowly. A thought struck her boldly. If she wasn't pregnant, than she should prove it to herself. To him. To everyone. Steeling herself for the moment of truth, she turned around and began stomping back towards the drugstore. Her hands were both clenched in fists at her sides.  
  
Entering the store again with a look of steady determination, Kagome entered the same isle once again and snatched the pregnancy test kit off of the shelf. Then she marched to the counter and bought it.  
  
Having purchased it, Kagome felt that the worst was over. Because now she was obligated to use it. Inescapable fate said that she was going to test herself, and then it was going to show her that she was not pregnant.  
  
Kagome almost smiled, the thought was sort of comforting. This would be a little victory for her.  
  
After walking confidently all the way home, Kagome barged into her apartment and immediately opened the kit. Quickly she read and followed the instructions, while standing in her underwear in her little bathroom with the door locked and closed. Then the box told her to wait for five minutes while the tab at the end of the small test rod would gradually turn one color or another. Red meant that she was not pregnant. Blue meant that she was.  
  
Kagome didn't look at it the whole time, only at a wristwatch she held in a quivering hand while she sat on the edge of her bathtub. Every moment made her tense and more tense, and very soon she broke out in a little sweat.  
  
When the five-minute mark came, she closed her eyes and reached out for the rod. When she knew it was in her grasp before her, she took a very deep breath and opened her eyes.  
  
Blue.  
  
"Oh my God..." The ground seemed to shake beneath her feet. Everything spun as the shock became so overpowering that it nearly caused her to feint. She took a very unstable step backwards and then reeled forwards and flung herself over the counter; her head was in her hands and her elbows propped up her upper torso. "Oh my God..."  
  
She was pregnant. The emotion was almost indescribable. Uncertainty, total uncertainty at first. And then...something else came flooding into her chest; joy.  
  
"I'm going to have a baby," she whispered softly to herself. Yes, it was true that Sesshomaru was the father. But in the end, it was her baby, not his. She was going to have a child; she was going to be a mother. Kagome smiled ecstatically. A baby! Her own, her most precious, a little infant to love and to be hers. A baby to take care of, a baby to look after.  
  
Her own little, sweet, baby...It was all Kagome could possibly care about. Her tiny kid. She put a hand on her stomach affectionately and tears slipped out of her eyes.  
  
***  
  
Onward, ho 


	6. Goodnight Moon

Nothing to say. Read if you dare.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill or Inuyasha or anything related to either of them.  
  
***  
  
Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento Chapter 6-Goodnight Moon  
  
***  
  
In Japan, a demon ignorant of his new fatherhood was still uncertain about the human girl, Kagome. However, he was certain of one thing, he had to find her again.  
  
Her absence in his life had become an injury, and never once did she leave his thoughts. She remained present in his mind in one way or another, and he felt nothing for her except for a passion to see her again.  
  
Sesshomaru felt no hate or anger for her; he didn't feel anything about her, technically, just about seeing her. It was a complex situation, but he had persuaded himself to believe that if he might somehow meet her again all would be resolved.  
  
That was why he was doing everything in his power to find her. And he knew he would, it was inevitable. Sesshomaru had very good resources as well. His connections were great and vast, and he also had a special group of a select four that he knew would find her. His special four, all assassins, and all with demon blood.  
  
For that was how Sesshomaru was able to live so comfortably. He commanded an assassination squad, and was occasionally an assassin himself. They were all five of them the deadliest power in the world, and the deadliest power in the world was certainly paid very lavishly when they were assigned a mission, individually or as a squad.  
  
That had been his purpose for Kagome, originally; to train her as his newest killer; and then to use her, by her will or not. In the end, Kagome would enjoy her work, and eventually she would realize that. For one who had once been so pure...it could be a mind-shattering revelation; enough to destroy the soul.  
  
***  
  
Nearly three months had come and gone quickly. The sky outside of the plane was a hazy purple-red. Sesshomaru watched Japan dwindle behind him under the clouds from his window. In his hand was a slip of paper with a few digits written on it. In his other hand, was a cell phone.  
  
Only a few minutes ago, Kagura, one of his deadly four, all of whom were with him on the plane, had handed him the piece of paper with only a few words for him. She understood very well the moments when Sesshomaru would wish not to be spoken to.  
  
He remembered the brief interaction vividly. Only a few minutes ago he had comfortably adjusted himself to the fact that in a few hours he would be seeing Kagome again. It hadn't taken long for them to find her, considering her skills in hiding herself away. Skills she had learned from him, and that his team, also trained under his hand, could interpret. As soon as he had heard the news of her location, Sesshomaru had arranged for a private jet to take him and his team to Puerto Rico. He felt it necessary that they should accompany him on this expedition. Yet here was a new thing. He had a chance now to talk to her early.  
  
"We just got her phone number," Kagura said, standing beside his seat, looking down at him, emotionless. It wasn't the time for emotions. He took the small, folded sheet of paper from her solemnly. She opened her mouth to say something and then shut it again with a bow. Then she turned away.  
  
So now, only a few long minutes after Kagura had handed him her number, Sesshomaru was silently debating whether or not he should call her. He didn't know why the thought made him so doubtful, but it did.  
  
Yet despite his apprehension, he suddenly lifted the phone, opened the slip of paper, and began dialing. He settled it to his ear, and listened while it began to ring forebodingly while he felt his heart pounding in his chest only a bit more swiftly than usual.  
  
A voice answered softly on the other side, "Hello?" It asked.  
  
Sesshomaru was momentarily paralyzed by the sound. Her voice seemed like it came from decades in the past. It was lovely to him then, lovely to hear it and have a small burden lifted quietly from his shoulders, but not the entire burden. Yet it was still a small relief to hear her. In his mute awe he forgot to answer, and again she quested, "Hello?"  
  
"Hello Kagome," he finally said very calmly.  
  
There was silence for a little while on the other line, and then, "Sesshomaru?"  
  
"Yes." He stared out the window while he talked, enjoying the conversation like it was just a simple chat between good acquaintances.  
  
"How did you get this number?" She inquired without a tone of any sort. Her voice was just flat, quiet, mature.  
  
"I have my ways."  
  
"Then...I suppose you know where I am, don't you?"  
  
"Yes I do," he responded kindly.  
  
Another small silence, "May I run?" She asked him like a little child. She was being very serious.  
  
"I'd rather you didn't," he said, "I'll find you somehow you know."  
  
"Yeah, I know..." They were both quiet then, both unable to speak, and then she said in a seemingly more casual voice, "You know, for a while, I thought you might leave me alone for good."  
  
"I needed to find you."  
  
"...Why?"  
  
He touched the glass of his window, "I don't know."  
  
"I suppose you will, when you come."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I-I have to go now, Sesshomaru."  
  
He nodded, feeling that it was an appropriate time to end the brief and quiet conversation, "Goodbye Kagome."  
  
"Goodbye Sesshomaru. I suppose I'll...see you soon."  
  
And then she hung up, and left him still listening, half expecting her to start talking again with a new passion for hating him. It felt strange, and oddly empty or unsatisfying to talk to her without feeling her anger or his own.  
  
***  
  
Her landlord had just informed him that she was not in. Sesshomaru had frowned a little at that. Had Kagome thought to try and escape anyway? It wasn't like her, and she hadn't sounded like she was preparing to leave when he had talked to her on the phone. The man had explained to him that she would be back shortly, having only left just five minutes ago for a walk.  
  
Five minutes suggested to Sesshomaru that she had not, in fact, chosen to run. Five minutes was not enough time this late in the game to make a move like that. She had to really be taking a walk.  
  
So Sesshomaru decided to wander around the town while he waited for her to come back to her apartment. His four killers had escorted him in a black Mercedes, and he told them all to wait by the apartment and call him if she should return. Despite their protests, he insisted that he wished to walk alone.  
  
The town was beautiful in its own subdued way. Set in a valley surrounded by mountains, surrounded by a tropical forest-jungle. It had a blissfully warm climate, and the architecture was filled with Spanish themes that gave it a small classical appearance.  
  
There was a little lake in the near vicinity, and Sesshomaru decided that it would be worthwhile to find it. The view had to be lovely just as the sun was setting, as it was at that moment. He wandered in its direction, following the scent of water.  
  
Eventually he started to catch glimpses of it between buildings, but preferring not to walk through the narrow alleys, he continued to travel in search of an opening where he might find a space to stand and watch it shine without feeling closed in.  
  
He spotted it up ahead, and moved towards it at a quicker pace. Then he turned around the last building in his way before the open lot, and walked into the small, sandy area.  
  
Sesshomaru stopped where he stood, seeing a young woman with her back turned to him, leaning on a railing that blocked her from the rest of the beach, and getting hit with her scent at the same time. He hadn't once forgotten her scent in the past four months. Not once. It was sweet, not particularly amazing, but sweet and pleasing for a human all the same.  
  
After pulling his phone from his pocket, he dialed his killers and told them that he had found her, and that they should meet him along the lake in a small empty lot of sand.  
  
And then he approached her cautiously, and came up beside her. She didn't turn around and face him, but she could feel his presence, and knew it could be no one else.  
  
"Kagome."  
  
She sighed very deeply and then stood up from the railing, turning to face him. He looked her up and down once, and then he realized it.  
  
The change, it was everywhere. Her scent, her body, her face, her posture, everything! Everything was different, and he knew why...  
  
"You're pregnant," he whispered.  
  
She nodded with a little smile on her face, and placed a hand over her slightly swollen stomach, "Yes I am Sesshomaru."  
  
His eyes widened a little as the gravity of the situation slowly began to dawn on him. At first he couldn't find words to speak, and his mouth opened silently, then, he blinked and lowered his head a bit.  
  
"Are you...happy?"  
  
Ever calm, she replied, "Yes."  
  
He stared at her, this human woman. He had to admit that while she stood in the light of the setting sun, her hair disturbed by a passing breeze, with a look of utmost confidence and joy on her face, that she was beautiful. She really was.  
  
Seeing that he couldn't talk to her just yet, she chose to speak instead, "Sesshomaru," she began quietly, "May I ask you a question?"  
  
He felt a sudden sadness in his heart, "Yes."  
  
"Do you think, that...if we hadn't ever hated each other, that if none of this had happened the way it did.... that," she struggled for the right words, and bowed her head for a moment before bringing it up again to face him, "That we might have been in love?"  
  
He was silent, pretending to think about the question deeply even though he already had the answer in mind. The waves accompanied their conversation softly as they splashed on the nearby shore.  
  
"Yes," he finally responded.  
  
She smiled even more, "I thought so too. It's too bad...that things had to happen this way."  
  
"We can still change."  
  
Kagome turned away from him and looked towards the sun, "No, no... I don't think we really could. It's really...too late. I don't think that we could do it."  
  
Her words were cutting him like a knife, and there was nothing he could do to help it. Not with words. So he reached out to touch her, and she said, "You shouldn't," which was also very painful. He asked himself, in the midst of all the misery he was feeling, what did he expect her to say to him?  
  
A car pulled up behind them, and Sesshomaru knew that it was his four. They might come out of the car and frighten Kagome if he stayed too long. He would have left then if he hadn't felt that there was something he needed to say to her yet.  
  
But again, she spoke before he had a chance, "Sesshomaru please," she suddenly begged, "Please, let me go. Let me have my baby, please."  
  
He still couldn't talk. She was actually pleading with him to leave her alone.  
  
"I like it here," she continued, "I like this life. I want to live it with my baby. Please, just...go away." Her eyes were full of tears when she looked back at him, "You've caused me so much pain Sesshomaru, please, please, let me go now."  
  
His mouth hung open a little in shock.  
  
"This is," he paused, "What you want?"  
  
Kagome nodded, "Yes."  
  
He breathed deeply in surrender. "Then for you my Kagome..." He smiled a little as he suddenly recovered himself, "I will let you go."  
  
She returned his small smile gratefully, and all at once she suddenly lifted herself onto her toes, touched his chin, and kissed him very lightly. "Thank you," she whispered into his lips, "Thank you, thank you."  
  
He gently took her hand and lowered it to her side. As he did so he drew her into a firm embrace, and felt her lean into him in return. One hand pressed her back to him; the other held the back of her head, which he kissed softly. Then he pulled away from her and held her face. "Take care of yourself Kagome."  
  
"I will." She was crying joyously.  
  
With that, he turned and walked towards the car awaiting him. Kagome followed him with her eyes from the railing blissfully. As he reached the door he turned to her one last time and gave her another small smile.  
  
She waved at him a little, and he then opened the car door. Just as he entered it and closed the door, he began speaking to his four. "You may drive us back to the airport Kikyo. Sango, I would like you to please make arrangements to have Miss Higurashi's mother, grandfather, and brother eliminated."  
  
***  
  
No, I'm not using the original Kikyo, or Sango, or Kagura. I'm just using their characters, it's not as if Sesshomaru brought them from the past to the future, so don't get confused. I would just feel bad if they got left out.  
  
*** 


	7. Glass On the Lawn

Somebody mentioned the fact that Sesshomaru's group of assassins had a corny name. Well...I wasn't aware that they had a name at all, so I'm open for suggestions if you guys can think of anything.

..............

Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill or Inuyasha or anything related to either of them.

......................

Lei non Deve Parlare

Chapter 7-Glass On the Lawn

......................

There was a storm over the lake. Tendrils of inky black clouds fanned out over the water, spreading ominously. The lake itself was disturbed by a chilling wind that was out of place in the warm climate. Little waves rippled over its surface.

No one realized the threatening weather was on the horizon, the hour was still far too early. In the small town it was not necessary to rise before a certain time. Usually that time was marked by the sunrise, but that morning there would be no sunrise. The sun had been masked by the frenzied clouds. Without its light, the town was covered in a dull blue haze.

Only two months had passed since Sesshomaru had come to Kagome, and already she was beginning to dismiss his existence entirely. She had seen something strange in his eyes that day by the water. It was an unmistakable sincerity, that he would do what she wanted, that he would obey her desires if they made her happy and safe.

And yet when he had embraced her...It had been so sweet, almost loving. But the way he had moved at the time, his overall actions, they had seemed to conveyed a different emotion. After she had touched his lips with hers in a small farewell kiss, how had he changed? When he had admitted that he would let her go, what had been different?

It was all in the way he had acted, she knew it. Every gesture he had made had a hidden meaning. Every word that he had said had another side. Kagome had detected in Sesshomaru in their last moments together, regret. Maybe even longing, and then, disappointment, in her. For her. When Kagome thought of him in later days, she wondered perhaps if he had come to her expecting her to say different things.

Then there was the doubt that accompanied Kagome everywhere. She always considered the possibility that nothing he had said was legitimate. She had to ask herself; would he really leave her alone? Kagome realized it was a not just a little to ask someone when you pleaded with them to never lay eyes on their own offspring.

But that was a thought that Kagome couldn't possibly bear. The faintest hint of it burned her up. She absolutely refused to let Sesshomaru ever touch her baby. His evil would never meet her child, not ever. He would never even see it.

The cold wind from the storm blew into her room through her open balcony window and kissed her cheek softly. Kagome stirred in her sleep, flinching in shock unconsciously. She wanted to hate him with the same passion as she had before, but the strength wasn't left in her. He had taken that too, her common sense. Kagome had every right to hate him, but remembering him that day would always silence her cries of rage.

It was like a knife in her back, betrayed by her own emotions. She would always keep that picture of him in the back of her mind, as he was walking away, so debonaire that it was sinful. He was the light of her life, the hell fire that attracted her like a moth. But memories of her baby always called her back home, and that was where her loyalty lied.

......................

A roll of distant thunder had urged Kagome's eyes open. The gasp of air that she had taken at her first moment of consciousness had been a deep, heavy, quick one. Her thoughts, like the drapes over her open window, had been greatly disturbed by the chilling breeze.

Nightmarish images had chased away any hope of a decent night's sleep, and so she had looked balefully at the balcony and stood up to close the window. She hardly ever kept it closed, because typically the nights were hotter, and so the rusty hinges were reluctant to yield to her efforts.

She then stood with her forehead leaning against the glass. It was a strange morning for Puerto Rico, particularly her town, which had been known to go into the 80's regularly in the morning.

Kagome noticed then that her back was uncommonly sore. Even with the burden of a baby, the pain seemed to be particularly frustrating. Realizing immediately that she would be unable to get any further sleep, she shuffled into the bathroom to take a long shower.

Hot water helped. It was soothing, and Kagome would have drifted off had it been about six and a half years ago. At that time she would have still been a relatively innocent, relatively happy, relatively good-natured girl. She also would have been fifteen years old. And she wouldn't have been pregnant. And in accordance with her situation in the shower, Kagome would have been sleepier most of the time.

But spending hours with Sesshomaru almost every day, waking up at dawn and feeling the sick bite of her injuries late into the midnight hours had made Kagome more immune to natural habits like sleeping. Sesshomaru had also given her a taste of true anger, and on top of that, he had been the one to get her pregnant in the first place. That was her innocence out the window. And as for being good-natured, Kagome had subconsciously hardened herself against that idea as well.

But happiness was hers, finally. She was happy now, very happy. To have her baby and a life without him to make her worry and bleed.

............................

Two months with Lilly as her only real acquaintance had made Kagome two other friends. Both were many years older than her, but her own experiences had brought her up to their level. Unbeknownst to them, Kagome was not mature because she was simply more advanced than other twenty-one-year-olds, she was mature because life had taught her that happy-go-lucky morons never lasted long.

Her friends were all happy-go-lucky, and two were morons. But Kagome was greatly entertained by them, and they even rubbed off on her once in a while. Lilly, along with Amelia and Laura, had put her at ease.

In the record store, Kagome was chewing a pen absent-mindedly by the register. Laura was standing next to her, filing records. All three of them constantly shooed her away from her duties in light of her pregnancy. Lilly was the worst though, because she was able to flaunt her past experience in her face and tell her to shut up fiendishly.

Laura, however, was easier to handle because she was a complete loon. Kagome had decided long ago that slightly bitter, middle-aged Puerto Rican women were a hoot.

"What if it's a boy?" She asked Kagome curiously, "What will you name it if it's a boy?"

She removed the pen from her mouth and thought aloud for a moment, "Umm...How about Adelio?" She finally said.

"Adelio?" Laura sniffed coldly, "Name it Dumb-Fuck and it will be a genius just to spite you," She said rapidly.

"My baby..." Kagome began as she carefully lifted herself onto the top of the counter, "My baby will not be a dumb fuck; nor will it be a genius. It will be perfect. And if it's a boy I think that I will name it Buyo."

"Buyo? What the hell kind of a name is that?" Laura snapped.

Kagome shrugged in response, "Cat I used to have."

Laura muttered under her breath and averted her eyes as Kagome kicked her lightly in the shoulder.

"And what if it's a girl?"

At this question she put her hands together and thought very hard. Kagome brushed over every female name she could remember, and strained to find an appropriate title.

"I know it sounds silly, but I just heard this name about a month ago and I think it's pretty."

"What is it?"

Kagome smiled deviously, "It's so strange. Clementine."

"Clementine? That's trashy. Don't ruin the poor kid's social life."

Again she shrugged, "I like the way it sounds. Just say it slowly, Cle-men-tine. Listen to all the syllables."

"Cle-men-tine," Laura mimicked, "Still sounds like shit to me."

Kagome frowned, "I think it's lovely. You're just bitter."

"Oh yeah?" She pulled out a cigarette, "Why?"

"I don't know...because I'm pregnant and you aren't."

Laura laughed thunderously. Her whole body shook when she laughed. When she had finally settled down enough to speak, she disregarded the subject. "You see the fat ass anywhere?"

Lilly didn't like it when Laura smoked inside the store, and although her backside wasn't particularly large for her age, Laura enjoyed pointing it out just to watch her squirm.

Kagome would have told her off, but she didn't have the energy. So instead she just told Laura that no, she didn't see Lilly in the near vicinity. Laura grinned darkly to herself and began puffing rapturously on her cigarette.

Kagome resumed chewing the end of the pen, but continued to talk to Laura as well. She was tired that day, very exhausted. For the first few days after Sesshomaru had left she had felt rejuvenated. One of her happier memories was jumping ecstatically on her bed, if not a bit cautiously for the sake of the baby. It had been a statement of just how overjoyed she had been to see him finally out of her life.

But now, either her condition or just day to day events were wearing her out. Kagome felt dead, mentally. Her thoughts were mellow and unfocused, her schedule was boring and had recently become a strain.

She sighed suddenly in the middle of one of Laura's speeches. Laura suddenly closed her mouth and leaned in very close to her, "You okay Meyumi?" she said around her cigarette.

Kagome nodded and closed her eyes. "I'm just sleepy."

"Go home."

"No...I can't do that," She said with new energy.

Laura took another drag before speaking again, "Why not?"

"Well first of all, I'm just sleepy! I'm not on the verge of death. And, more importantly, there's work to be done!" She chose not to dignify Kagome's words with a response. Unless her steady, belittling stare could be considered a response. "What?!"

"What work?"

Kagome waved her arms while she fumbled for an intelligent answer, "I don't know!" She finally concluded, "Surely there's something to sort or whatever!"

"Something to sort or whatever..." Laura echoed, "Go home or I'll get you fired."

Kagome folded her arms, "No."

"Scoot."

"I. Can't."

"There are ways to get you out of here bitch. I swear I'll tell Fat Ass that you threw up again if you don't get the hell out and go home."

She narrowed her eyes at Laura devilishly, "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh shut up. You're talking to me,you idiot. Go home." She jabbed her thumb towards the door.

It was poorly expressed concern on Laura's part, and though Kagome would have preferred to bring the conversation down a few notches on the emotional rage scale, she was vaguely touched by her actions. And besides, she could never battle Laura's wickedness. So she gathered her things, and pouting, strode out the door.

Leaving work sick was a habit she would not like to pursue.

..............................

She developed an inexplicable and throbbing headache on her way home. At first Kagome wrote it off as an effect of the heat, but by the time she reached her block it was clearly due to something else.

When she opened the door to her room it had intensified so much that she could barely see straight. The pain was clogging her senses, and seeping into her stomach with an acidic quality. Gradually it streaked all over her system. It was so foreign, yet vaguely familiar. The way it was getting to every part of her felt so much like something she had experienced before.

Kagome's world was spinning as she collapsed over her bed. Her upper body landed gently in a heap of pillows and down bedding, while her feet and legs still kept half of her kneeling on the ground. Her strength wouldn't allow her to drag the rest of herself up, and so she simply drifted off where she was, feebly unable to get rid of the surprise pain in her head.

Half-realized dreams terrorized her sleep. They were all nightmares, and always faded before she could decipher them. Kagome cried out softly every now and then, but before long, everything was dark, and she slept peacefully.

............................

Her eyes darted open sometime late at night. Kagome lay panicked where she was for half a second while she struggled to control her pounding heartbeat. It was rapid, very panicked, and very unlike anything she had felt recently. Her flesh was quaking with fear, and the fact that everything was pitch black was no comfort at all.

Kagome's schooling caught up with her quickly, and she took deep and steady breaths to quiet herself. Presently her shivering subsided, and even her intense fear began to ebb away. She found she was lying on her back, on a hard surface. After reaching outwards with her right hand she touched something wooden, a bedpost. Kagome discovered that she was on the floor, and moved her legs experimentally. Pain raced to her back. She was horribly sore.

She tried to remember what had happened, and gradually fuzzy memories crept back to her. Suddenly thinking of her position before she had fallen asleep, and her position now, Kagome realized that she must have fallen over and placed a hand immediately over her stomach.

The baby was safe, she could feel it.

Kagome moved again, ignoring her back, and used the bed as a support to pull herself up. Her head swam, she was dizzy. Pawing carefully across the night stand, she grasped her lamp and turned it on. The light stung her eyes, and Kagome draped a hand over her face to shield herself from it.

The clock read 3:03. Kagome looked around quietly and could hear the distant sound of waves in the lake. She tiptoed softly to her balcony and slipped outside to clear her head.

The air was uncomfortably chilly, and she rubbed her arms for warmth. Thunder rolled somewhere, and Kagome noticed that the storm that had been hanging around threateningly had never reached the town. In fact, the day had even started out with a foreboding cold wind, and then all of a sudden it had become stifling. Now it was cold again. She wondered about the strange weather briefly and supposed that the storm had simply passed while she was asleep before other thoughts crowded into her mind.

Her sleep had been very bad, she remembered that much. Kagome touched her temples lightly and tried to think of all the bad nightmare-things that she had dreamed about, but they wouldn't come to her. Her headache had also disappeared without a trace.

In its place there was a very odd feeling. It was as cold as the air she stood in, and it made her want to start shaking all over again. Kagome felt very weak, and to her surprise, even a little angry, at something she couldn't think of. Somehow she knew that something had happened...somewhere.

.........................

"Hay un clavo en la puerta Y hay," Amelia sang enthusiastically, " Vidrio en las Tachuelas de césped," her voice was loud and enthusiastic.

Lilly looked up from her desk and shouted at her. She kept singing, and began to dance around. It was a slow dance, her eyes were focused on Lilly's angry face. "En el piso Y la televisión está en Y en yo."

"I said be quiet!" she insisted.

Amelia only sang louder and danced faster. "Siempre duermo con mis fusiles cuando usted es ido!" she finished dramatically.

Lilly stomped viciously on the ground, "Amelia, someday I will break a bottle over your head." Laura entered the room with a cigarette in one hand, "And I'll cut Laura's throat with the shards!" she exclaimed, pointing furiously at the smoking item.

Laura waved her off and put it out reluctantly.

"It's bad for the young mother!" Lilly protested, "You're so careless Laura!"

"Oh hush, it's not that bad." Laura snaked over the floor and around the counter to the said young mother as Lilly sat down irritably. Amelia followed Laura and pulled up a chair around Kagome.

"How are ya sweetie?" she chided, ruffling her hair loosely. Amelia was like an affectionate grandmother, and she loved Kagome and the thought of Kagome having a baby dearly. "You aren't inhaling any secondhand smoke are you?" Laura snorted.

"No, not much, I don't think." Kagome looked up at her sweetly. Her eyes were a little sunken. "It's tough avoiding it here."

Amelia nodded with understanding and started shuffling absently through a box of records with no real purpose in mind. Laura hoisted herself unto the counter and sat there watching Kagome as she resumed reading her book. It was another slow day.

"How's the baby in there?" she asked.

"Oh fine, thanks..." Kagome said softly.

"My goodness your voice is small," Amelia began as she looked up, "I can barely hear you."

"Yeah, speak up," Laura said.

Kagome looked at them both kindly, "I don't think I can."

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked from across the room.

"Well..." Kagome pushed herself back from her book, "I guess I'm just a little tired. Aren't all pregnant women tired at this point?"

Without answering, she got up from her desk and paced over to Kagome determinedly. For a long time Lilly gazed at her face critically, and Kagome just smiled. She was used to inspections from them.

"I was never so pale," she muttered, "And my voice didn't bother me."

"What's your doctor say?" Amelia asked.

Kagome went rigid, the subject of doctors disturbed her greatly. She didn't see any doctors at all, but there were mountains of books in her apartment on the subject of pregnancy. Kagome couldn't possibly see a doctor...not in her case. She was starting to grow afraid of the day of the birth, and what her friends would say if the baby turned out to have physical characteristics like Inuyasha'd had.

"Oh, he says it's normal. I'm so young...you see." They all looked dissatisfied with her response, but none of them said a word. Kagome was glad for that, even though the tension in their group was heavy. She decided to break the uncomfortable silence, "She kicked yesterday."

Amelia lit up, "She did?"

"So it's a she now?" Laura asked.

They all started to chat pleasantly about Kagome's baby, and Kagome beamed in their attentions, pleased that they had so easily abandoned the previous subject. She despised lying to them, it was so similar to how she had lied to her old group of friends so many years ago. And that in turn reminded her of her past life, of Inuyasha, of her family.

She was almost due, and it was difficult persuading Amelia, Laura, and Lilly to allow her to continue to come to work. Kagome just enjoyed the setting, specifically the part that concerned the people. Ever since her unexplainable headache and nightmare-sleep a few months ago, Kagome had felt a strange urge to be around people. She had trouble falling asleep at night as she was always being attacked by a strong need to surround herself with others. She was terrified of being alone.

If she were alone, the pain would be more obvious. She was in pain so much now, and Kagome couldn't help but feel nervous. Always her stomach howled in agony, often she had to race into a bathroom to wait out the more violent moments. Sometimes she had to carry a tissue around to wipe away the perspiration that stood out on her forehead every so often from the strain.

Kagome had started feeling it a few weeks ago, and it had gone from occasional and mild to ever-present and unforgiving in no time at all. She couldn't be rid of it, and she was afraid to go to a doctor or to use medicine that might harm her baby. All Kagome could do was try her best to ignore it, and pray that her friends wouldn't notice enough to try and help her.

At that moment, as she was discussing possible names again, this time hearing Amelia's and Lilly's opinions on the subject, when she suddenly felt a very awful attack, worse than any other before. She doubled over, unable to control herself.

"Lilly..." she whispered.

The three ladies gathered over her instantly, and Kagome couldn't keep herself from moaning in misery. "What's wrong?" Amelia asked with a tight voice.

Kagome began to breathe quickly, and her vision became blurry at the edges, "This hurts...very badly."

"Oh my God..." Laura said sharply.

Lilly turned around to look at her, noticing her strange tone, "What is it?" She gasped at what Laura was speaking of and shouted, "She's going to have it now!" Kagome screamed in agony the next second and they all faced her again.

"Shit," Lilly blurted, "One of you call an ambulance or something!"

"Meyumi..." Amelia cooed, "You're having a baby!"

Kagome looked at her meekly out of the corner of her eye and smiled before she had to hide her head in pain again. As horrendous as she felt at that moment, no matter how much she believed that she might die if it got any worse, Kagome had never felt a greater happiness than when Amelia had said that. It was the only thought she could piece together; she was finally going to have her baby.

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	8. My Baby Shot Me Down

Hmm...I'm doing what I can to make this not so similar to Kill Bill. I want some of it to be original, because the purpose of this story is to make me enthusiastic about writing my other fics. And besides, it would be terrible to copy the movies scene for scene. That wouldn't be being a true fan. But if this chapter seems very similar, well that's just because this part was essential to the movie, and while I want it to be original most of the time, I want it to seem reminiscent of Kill Bill as well, you know?

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Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill or Inuyasha or anything related to either of them.

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Lei non Deve Parlare

Chapter 8-My Baby Shot Me Down

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Kagome cried out suddenly. She arched her back. Her hair was damp with sweat, and her hospital clothes were drenched. Her whole body convulsed regularly, and there was nothing she could do to control it. Never in her life, not even with Sesshomaru, had she felt so much pain; it took all of her strength to keep herself from passing out.

Therefore, her thoughts resided no where else. Kagome was completely focused on her battle against the misery, and if she had a moment to catch her breath, she was worrying for the baby's safety. She didn't once consider the fact that unlike her original plan, she was in a regular hospital, for regular people.

With regular infants.

All of that, however, would be inconsequential. In a matter of moments, none of that would be worth anything at all.

...............

Amelia winced slightly when Kagome's body thrashed again. It was torture to have to watch her wrench herself around in agony. She squeezed her hand gently, and in return Kagome nearly crushed it.

Laura stood near, but not as close as Amelia. She looked frightened and confused, and was conveying more emotion on her face all together than she had in a long time. This was a time for her to be serious, it was not a time for jokes or sarcasm. Nor was it a time for cigarettes, even though she had a horrific craving for one.

Lilly was sitting on a stool by Kagome's bed, and eventually got up to pace around. Laura and Amelia could barely hear her voice over the young woman's howling cries, "Where the hell is the doctor?" She muttered coldly.

No one could answer her. Not even five minutes after they had been brought to the room they now occupied, after driving Kagome to the hospital themselves, had the doctor been present in the room. It was with much reluctance that he left them after a nurse had come by telling him that it was absolutely urgent and necessary that he should come with her on some unexplained business. There had been a few assistants, but they had also been taken away, one by one.

It was baffling, and scared everyone. It was also like a dream, or a nightmare, that they would be left to comfort the sick and writhing Kagome all by themselves. Lilly was the only one with any real experience, and she had not been in the position at that time to comprehend what was being done to help her. Thus she was of no real help. All anyone could do was stand over Kagome silently.

Laura finally cracked.

"This is ridiculous!" she squawked in a high and tight voice. "She might even die! Look at her!"

"Keep your voice down Laura!" Amelia snapped, holding Kagome's hand even tighter.

Laura fumed with quiet rage and fixed Amelia with a look of utter contempt. Lilly sat back down on her stool and sighed deeply. Her stare remained on Kagome's face, her dark brown eyes shut tight, everything about her features strained with pain.

"I'm going to go find someone," Laura said slowly. With that, she turned stiffly and made her way towards the door. She didn't make it very far.

Through the burden of her physical condition Kagome heard a conversation take place, a brief one. Between Laura, and someone she could not see.

"Who the fuck are you?!" She heard her friend say suddenly.

"Step aside now," the unknown voice was chilling, if a little taunting. Seemingly emotionless, it expressed a message that promised death.

Kagome wheezed a panted, and did her best to control her body. She brought herself under control gradually, but the slightest slip of her will-power would send her into violent fits again. As she did this, the conversation continued.

"No. Where the hell is the doctor?" Laura demanded.

There was a brief silence, and then someone else started speaking. "He's not coming," they said shortly.

"Not coming?! What the fuck does that mean? Who the fuck are you?!" Laura bellowed.

"It means just what you think it means. Get out of the way," that was another unknown speaker. What ensued from Kagome's assumption was a brief scuffle of some sort, then footsteps, and then Amelia began to speak from right next to her.

"Who are you?" she asked softly, "What do you want?"

"We've only come here to see Kagome."

Kagome gasped suddenly, and instead of kicking around in more bursts of misery, she began to shake. Shivers spread down her body like waves, and she felt herself go cold.

"Why?" Lilly asked.

Silence. Kagome opened her eyes.

Sesshomaru stood in front of her bed. To his left, a tall, graceful woman that Kagome recognized as the driver of the car Sesshomaru had used to escort her to his house that very first time. Next to her was another, slightly shorter woman with long dark brown hair and brown, cat-like eyes. On Sesshomaru's right was yet another female, this one with short hair she kept up behind her head in a spiky ponytail. One eye was an intense magenta color, the other was hidden behind a black eye patch, if there was another eye at all. And then, there was a man by the woman with the eyepatch, He had long, dark hair that fell around his shoulders and was partially tied up in the back. His eyes were red.

Kagome breathed faster, she felt uneasy, extremely uncomfortable in his presence.

Sesshomaru smiled. "So she's finally having a baby?"

"What do you want Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked unsteadily. There was still pain clawing her apart, and it was hard to ignore it. Even when he was standing over her with this unknown group.

"I want to see you have your child."

"My child." She said firmly. She glanced around quickly at the people flanking him on either side.

He caught the glance, "Do they make you uncomfortable?"

She swallowed and didn't answer. A bead of perspiration coursed down her face from her forehead.

Sesshomaru lowered his chin and his eyes suddenly flicked towards each of his surrounding group in turn. They seemed to comprehend his message without any real difficulty, and began filing out. The woman with the eyepatch paused momentarily and regarded Kagome with a very cold stare, then she left with the others, and closed the door as she went.

As soon as they had all withdrawn Sesshomaru brushed past the fuming Laura, and confused Amelia and Lilly without so much as a word of excuse. And they didn't stop him, they knew they couldn't if they tried.

When he reached her bedside he stooped down gracefully and looked Kagome straight in the eye. She flinched and scooted away from him, still panting. His eyes narrowed as he spoke, "You know better than to be afraid of me."

"What are you going to do?" she asked suddenly.

"Is it very painful?"

Kagome breathed cautiously, and gained control of her troubled body for a few seconds. "...Yes," she said quietly.

Sesshomaru's mouth became a straight line again, as it usually was, "I'm sorry."

"What are you going to do?"

He stared into her eyes for a long time, and she in turn stared into his. Sesshomaru could easily place her emotion: fear. After all of their years together, spent training her in combat, grooming her powers, strengthening her education...It had all been meant to keep her afraid of nothing, and here she was still afraid of just one thing: him. He hated it.

Kagome, however, was having a far harder time trying to figure Sesshomaru out. All she could do was focus on his eyes, and try to fight off the terror he inspired in her. The fact that he didn't answer her question made her possibly more frightened than if he had actually said something that hinted at a dangerous experience to come. She had seen his anger after burning for five hundred years, she knew what he would allow himself to do.

"Meyumi?" She snapped out of the trance she seemed to be sharing with Sesshomaru, and turned towards the owner of the voice. It was Lilly, looking more concerned for her than she had ever seen. It made her heart ache with grief. How could she have let such wonderful people become involved in such a threatening situation? "Who is he?"

Kagome's mind raced for a response, but Sesshomaru beat her to it. "I'm a friend. I came to see Meyumi." He stood up elegantly, "Had I known it would be such an inconvenient time to visit, I wouldn't have come." His eyes never left her. "I just had to see Meyumi again."

"Please don't," Kagome cried unexpectedly, in a tone that was delicate and vulnerable. It was barely above a whisper.

"I wouldn't worry," Sesshomaru said, "I'm not going to."

Before any of the women who were not informed had a chance to question the latest exchange of words, Sesshomaru bent down again suddenly and leaned in close to Kagome's face. His head was tilted to the side, so that he came in next to her ear. There he began whispering to her, so that no one else would be able to hear him. "I want you to know," he began, and she started to shiver again, "that I did not mean for things to end this way."

The sudden fear he caused her to experience made Kagome's strength falter, and her body gradually succumbed to the still-present pain that whipped through her every second. She whimpered softly as he continued to speak into her ear, "This was not my first choice."

Sesshomaru's hand drifted down and folded around Kagome's. Together their fingers rested over her stomach, over her baby. Then he drew back and stood up once more. "Will you allow me to stay?"

Kagome could barely see him now, and it took everything she had to prevent herself from screaming again. To her surprise, she noticed that her face was wet with something other than sweat, and she they were not tears of pain. She nodded to him briefly, and then turned away to hide her face in her pillow.

Lilly, Amelia, and even Laura made no objections as he leaned casually against the door; his gaze resting on the now moaning Kagome.

"Do you know where the doctor is?" Amelia asked him tentatively.

"No," he said to her, his voice was level and emotionless.

"It's going to come soon!" Kagome shouted, they all turned to her.

Lilly moved to Kagome's side and took the hand that Amelia wasn't holding tightly, "I don't understand, where are the doctors?"

"I'll go find someone," Laura said sternly, and again, like her other attempt, she moved to the door. This time she opened it, but in the tradition of last time, she was stopped by the same group.

Her response, however, was different.

"What the hell?" She breathed in a faint voice.

Kagome lifted her head, a bolt of fear gripping her instantly. It was more powerful at that moment than any other leading up to the scene. Her eyes were wide with terror.

Every one of Sesshomaru's killers was armed with a gun, and every gun was large and powerful. Had Kagome been well enough to see clearly, she would have been able to recognize the models, but she could still tell that they were as powerful as they came, one of the most deadly hand-held weapons someone could wield.

None of the hospital personnel in that particular building could hear the barrage of bullets that was fired, they were dead.

And no one really heard Kagome's scream of protest, as blood flew all around her.

....................

She lay beside her overturned hospital bed, Lilly had thrown it over to defend her from stray shots at the start of the violence. She was wheezing and trying hard to keep herself awake, when she heard the sound of footsteps coming near her. Her faint heartbeat accelerated then, and she would have clutched her swollen abdomen protectively had she had enough strength to move her reddened fingers.

He stopped by Kagome, and knelt down on one knee beside her on the ground. She tried as hard as she possibly could to move away from him, even a little, but he stopped her efforts with a hand on her face; it was enough to immobilize her limp body.

"Kagome," he said in his typical stoic tone, "I think you should know that your mother, grandfather, and brother have been killed."

She howled in agony, mourning the loss of her family in the single instant that he told her. On top of everything that had just happened, it was enough to crush her entirely. But the thought of her baby, possibly hurt, but possibly still alive, made her continue to live and breathe. Still Kagome turned away from him in a fit of grief; he caught her and made her turn back to him, but before he did she caught a glimpse of the Amelia, lying dead beside the bed.

Her eyes found his again. Sesshomaru smiled.

"You must hate me now."

Her breathing became even more rapid. His fingers began to brush over her face, softly rubbing away the blood that had gathered over her skin, reminiscent of the time he had dabbed at her with his kerchief so tenderly.

"You must try to understand that I'm not doing this to torture you."

He lifted up his hand, one that had previously been hidden from her view. It contained a loaded gun, smaller than what the others of his group had used, it resembled something a western cowboy might throw around; very debonaire, very dangerous.

Kagome struggled to overcome her fear as her eyes opened fully again. She couldn't find the strength to say even a word to him. There was nothing she could do to stop him as he started to aim towards her.

"I would not torture you Kagome," he continued. There seemed to be a note of something akin to grief in his eyes right at that second.

Kagome suddenly spoke to him, with a statement that was meant to remind him rather than tell him; to make him realize it, if only to save the child.

"You're the father, Sesshomaru."

He pulled the trigger hardly after she had finished saying her words.

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No, it's not over. And for those of you who have seen these movies...I know it was infinitely cheap to throw Elle's eyepatch in, but you've got to understand, Elle is quite possibly my favorite character, I love her to death. And you can't think of Elle without thinking of the eyepatch. It's so cool! Thank you and goodbye.


	9. Peer Pressure

Why hello again. We've just _got _to stop meeting like this, you know?

Disclaimer: I don't Kill Bill or Inuyasha or anything related to either of them.

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Lei non Deve Parlare

Chapter 9-Peer Pressure

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Kagura stood over her silently. Her face, however, said many things; most of all, "I hate you." A scowl seemed to befit her because of her remaining eye. It was so piercing that it was obviously meant to compliment a face of fury. Fortunately for her and the natural will of the universe, a face of fury was just what she wore.

Looking down, she could see that Kagome's breathing was still slightly irregular. The rest of her had been nicely stitched back together. The bullet wounds, and other such things of that nature, had been cleared up well. She would heal decently, for a human, and her injuries would not cripple her. Were she ever to have a chance to prove this point was yet to be decided.

Long raven hair blanketed her pillow, she slept peacefully. Her eyes were shut, her limbs were limp and relaxed. Kagome's appearance contrasted Kagura's sharply. While one was standing rigidly, with her arms folded and her jaw set, the other was unconscious and immobile.

"I never liked you," she hissed. "And we never even knew each other that well, did we?"

The comatose patient she hovered over made no reply, but Kagura continued to talk to her as if she could hear what she was saying. "Do you know what confuses me to this day?"

Still no answer.

"That _Sesshomaru _liked you." She snorted, "That he even wasted time on _you_."

She stalked over to the right side of Kagome's bed suddenly, and leaned over her with a hand on either side of her head. "What's so goddamn special about you anyway? How could it be..." her words started to slow down as she stood up again and her eye drifted around the room leisurely, "That the powerful and cruel Sesshomaru would spend five hundred fucking years thinking about you...?"

Her attention snapped back to Kagome as her hand simultaneously went to her hip, "And only you."

Carefully she started to draw out a finely crafted dagger. It was small, light, quick. She liked to mess around with sharp objects when she had the chance, and it was always handy to have one around. It glistened in the dim lighting.

"Now bitch," she began again with a fresher, more pleasant tone, "I'm going to make sure that such an unfortunate and truly time-consuming obsession doesn't cause anyone any more trouble again." She came closer to Kagome once more, with the dagger raised.

Its tip was pointed down directly at her heart, and Kagura was prepared to stab as many times as needed to keep the organ from beating anymore. Her eye flashed dangerously as she closed in on her prey.

And then she turned away.

Her breathing was erratic as she slipped the knife back into its sheath at her side, and her fingers shook while she did it. It took her a few moments to compose herself, and then she started speaking to Kagome again in a less confident voice, "I've decided that I'm not going to bring myself down just to kill you while you're sleeping." There was a pause as she struggled to catch her breath, "When I push my knife through your chest I want you to be alive to feel it."

With that, Kagura headed towards the door, and as she went she warned Kagome: "Don't wake up."

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Five years later.

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Kagome watched as Sesshomaru let himself pull the trigger of the gun, she watched with sight clouded by pain and grief as the bullet rocketed out and came towards her. Her eyes had left his face only a few moments ago. That face she had also watched for a little while. He had wanted it to look emotionless, but there was a mix of hatred and sadness in his features.

The bullet had impacted her head in less than a second, and her last image had been of her blood momentarily coming before her eyes. Then everything had become black in an instant.

What followed that moment from Kagome's perspective was a very long string of pictures she couldn't piece together in her state of unconsciousness. Not much could be perceived while she was in her coma, and though memories might return to her later, they were not to be had while she was practically dead to the world.

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Someplace in the hospital, a nurse was carrying a tray of surgical supplies. She was very casual and payed little attention to what she was doing. At that moment, she was battling _Heros_, a song that had entered her brain several days ago and was showing no signs of leaving anytime in the near future.

Her shoe was also untied, unbeknownst to her; the distracting song did not allow her to notice it, or make her steps light enough to avoid any risky situations.

Another distraction was the gum she was chewing, which required at least a little of her time. After chewing for twenty minutes, it had become a sort of instinct to keep chewing, and that was what she did. Therefore, instinct did not let her divert the energy she was using to keep track of her chewing to her shoe and the possibility of a risky situation.

And on top of that, she was just about to pass an attractive male nurse. It was an animalistic ritual that doctors and nurses would find each other appealing after working together for such a long time, and the tradition was carefully upheld in the hospital through a tradition of coy glances and specially planned gestures, etc.

Her eyelids flickered, and she couldn't help but stare as she walked past. Then, just at that second, her shoelace dragged enough so that her lagging foot could catch it. She fumbled, and her reaction was slow because of the A) the gum, B) the song, and C) the male nurse, who was at least happy that he now had a chance to look at the female nurse.

And because of her slow reaction, she did not move quickly enough to stop the surgical tools from sliding off of the tray. They went flying swiftly towards the floor.

The accident, however stupid and clumsy it seemed, brought much rejoicing. First of all, it provided a chance for the female nurse and male nurse to get to know each other and to eventually get married and live happily ever after with two brilliant children.

Second...

The noise was tremendous as each instrument collided with the linoleum floor. Everyone within earshot stopped what they were doing to observe the source of the disturbance. The clatter traveled fast, and wove down the intricate hallways. It sped east, and soon reached the ears of a comatose young woman in a matter of seconds.

Kagome sat bolt upright, gasping for breath as images of dead bodies and blood and bullets flying scattered through her mind like wildfire. For five seconds she simply had to sit still where she was to let the memories filter through her.

She put a hand on her head to feel gingerly for a wound that would signify the bullet that had entered her head, it didn't exist anymore; and then instead of shock, fear strangled her. Kagome's fingers immediately raced downwards, pawing all over her stomach frantically.

Her abdomen was normal.

She gasped while shivers danced up and down her spine. Again she searched, even more desperate this time, and she soon ripped her hospital gown upwards to look at her flesh herself. By the time her eyes rested on her stomach tears were present at the corners of her eyes. Faced with the realization that she did not have a baby inside of her anymore, Kagome drew a conclusion without even trying, and she screamed.

Her entire body convulsed in sobs as she bent slowly over, shaking all the way down. They were dry sobs, because the tears merely lingered in her eyes, they did not fall. All she could do was howl with grief as she sat on her bed, hunched over and trying pitifully to cling to the hope that she was still unconscious; that it wasn't true.

The sound of footsteps suddenly alarmed her, and she froze. The thought of Sesshomaru pointing the gun at her forehead returned to her instantaneously and she threw herself back down into her bed.

The door to her room opened and a man entered. Kagome could tell it was a male from the footsteps, they were heavier than a female's. She listened carefully to every movement he made, straining her ears for any indication of a dangerous outcome from his visit. To her surprise, he began to speak.

"How are you today girl?" He sounded American. Kagome was mystified; so far Japan was an unlikely location for her, and last she knew she was in Puerto Rico.

More unknown movements restored her attention to whatever business he was conducting. He didn't stop talking to her.

"Don't plan on waking up today either, huh?" He asked plainly. "Well that's all right. I don't mind having a beautiful woman to talk to everyday." His tone was smarmy, and made Kagome shiver with disdain. "Although," he said as he moved something around, "It would be nice to know what you're doing here. You shouldn't have lived through that shot."

Her mind was in a frenzy, he had to know about Sesshomaru. He had to know that she had been shot in the head. He had to be connected somehow. Her heartbeat accelerated and she fought it down as well as she could. Now Kagome understood that there was indeed a level of danger involved, and she was waiting for the chance to beat it off. Patiently she listened to his speech, and his actions.

What ensued after some more meaningless talk was a highly uncomfortable feeling as the needle in her arm was shifted a little. He was giving her an injection or some sort. For a moment Kagome suspected poison, but thought better of it. If they had kept her alive long enough for the wound in her head to heal, then they weren't going to kill her just yet so suddenly.

The light crinkle of his clothes alerted her to the fact that he was standing up, and then his fingers were sifting through her hair caressingly. He was patting her head as if she were a dog. "Well then sweetheart," he set something down, probably the syringe, "I'll just see you later."

Not so. Her fist flew upwards and to the right swiftly; at that same moment, her eyes opened and fixed him with a furious stare. The male nurse doubled over in pain while his fingers on her hair dropped away to clutch his stomach.

Kagome took advantage of his weakness to act. She looked around shortly for something to stun him with, and settled on the metallic tray he had used to carry in the syringe and medicine, which she promptly whipped around to his head. The nurse fell backwards in shock and hurt and crashed to the floor.

She followed after him, but not gracefully. Intending to leap out and land deftly by his side, she threw her upper torso off the bed first and found that her legs were unresponsive. Thus, cursing, Kagome also hit the floor in a mess. But her landing did not hinder her as much as the nurse's had hindered him.

Her palm was laying flat on his chest, fingers spread, in a matter of seconds. The hand that was holding him to the ground began to glow softly with a violet-black light. Another thing Sesshomaru had taught her, though it was an extreme gamble, the ability to control the mysterious power she had been granted as a natural born priestess.

The fabric under her illuminated skin began to burn as it shied away from the strange flame. And in turn the flesh beneath it started to feel its bite. "Where is Sesshomaru?!" Kagome demanded sternly.

The nurse cried out in pain, his eyes fixed on the unbelievable glowing fingers that were wounding him without even moving. Instead of answering her, he tried to escape her hold, but she would have none of it. "Don't move!" Kagome barked, and her hand lit up even more vibrantly while the very outer layer of his skin simultaneously began to peel away. "Where is Sesshomaru?!"

"I don't know!" The statement was followed by a moan of pain.

"Where is he?!"

"I don't know!" he repeated, his hands wrapping around her wrist in an effort to lift her hand off of him. "I don't know who Sesshomaru is!"

Kagome snarled and pressed harder to keep the nurse down. "Is that so?"

"I swear..." He started to pant as his legs kicked a little.

She continued to keep her hand on him as she looked at his face. What remained of her compassionate side made her think that maybe he was telling the truth; yet the side of her that was filled with the same brutal anger she had felt eleven years ago made her want to rip his heart out.

Instead, her mixed emotions settled for a compromise. Kagome removed her hand and in a flash, before the nurse had a second to get up or register the absence of her fingers on his chest, she brought the same hand down squarely onto his face. She could have made the blow kill him, but instead she measured the force she exerted so that he was only knocked unconscious, and severely wounded.

He didn't even cry out before he feinted away; in fact the only answer his body made was a small amount of twitching just after the hit was delivered. Kagome settled back on her legs, which were partially folded beneath her just as they had been when she'd fallen.

The position of her legs made her look towards them. She frowned in frustration and slapped them a bit; no results. Somebody would show up eventually, either for her or because of the noticeable disappearance of the male nurse she had just immobilized. Kagome knew she would have to leave the place fast, it was dangerous to stay there awake when she could still be near Sesshomaru, for all she knew. But it would be supremely difficult to go anywhere with her legs in such a state.

A thought suddenly struck her, and she dragged herself under the bed incase someone did show up in the near future. Once securely positioned and out of sight, Kagome rested her hands over the upper thigh of her left leg. Breathing deeply, she focused her eyes on it and let the soft light surround her hands. It was however, lavender, not deep purple and threatening.

The glow made her skin burn a tiny bit, just as it had made the nurse's skin burn. It was an inescapable reaction. Again Kagome sighed, and closed her eyes to concentrate. Her leg began to quiver a little, and her hands also shook. She strained herself mentally and physically as a heat spread from where her hands rested all the way down to her toes.

The lighted faded out quickly and Kagome flopped backwards onto her hands. Her breath was heavy and small beads stood out on her skin. After letting herself relax for a while, she looked over at her leg. It was the same accept for a red mark where her hand had been, but the change she had been meaning to cause was not visible.

While her hands clenched into fists, her leg started to bend at the knee little by little. Kagome grit her teeth and continued to move it until it was completely folded, but the effort it took made her collapse with exhaustion again. The pause was brief, and her attention was soon fixed again on her leg.

"Come on..." The same fingers blanketed the same red spot and the same lavender glow returned. Kagome focused even more this time, and the results were that she could unbend her leg just a little more quickly than she had bent it.

The process was repeated over and over again, thoroughly, on each leg, many times. The heat of the power she was feeding her flesh made it come alive. It was like a healing process, a way of jump-starting her cold limbs.

Two hours later, an astounding amount of time to have passed without the absence of the nurse being noticed, Kagome crawled out from beneath the bed and stood up shakily with two bloody spots standing out on each of her thighs.

Frowning down at them, she quickly located some bandages in her room and wrapped her burns up to prevent them from bleeding any more. Then she stooped down beside the fallen nurse and began to undress him. She slipped into his pants quietly after removing her gown, and then pulled off his shirt. Unfortunately the hole she had created in it wasn't easy to ignore, so she pulled the blanket off of her bed, folded it neatly, and put it over her shoulder after putting on the damaged clothing. If she held it correctly over her chest anyone who spotted her would only be able to assume that she was carrying a blanket to another room.

Kagome placed the man's shoes over her feet and tied her hair behind her back with a strip of bandage as a finishing touch to lessen her chances of being recognized. Lastly, she reached into the pocket of the nurse's pants and found what she'd hoped she might find: car keys. Then she opened the door and casually began walking down the hall.

The nurse's name tag had made her realize that she was indeed in a hospital. The name of the facility was printed just under his title, as well as its location, Florida. Kagome knew from her study of the English language that Florida was part of America. The connection she put together was that after she had been discovered with a bullet in her head in Puerto Rico, she had been flown to a different hospital for more extensive care.

Kagome could only guess at what extensive care meant because she'd had no time to look into the reason for her being in the hospital in the first place other than a severe head injury that had already healed. And healed nicely; her hair over it had grown in well, everything was in order. She had to wonder how long she had been unconscious.

Soon Kagome stalked out of the hospital with intense fury in her walk. She headed towards the parking lot as pointed out to her by a sign and hoped that she might be able to locate the car she would need to find based on the brand listed on the keys, and luck.

Other than that, the only thought in her head was that what Sesshomaru's group had done to her was unforgivable, and she would make them pay for it. More importantly, she would make Sesshomaru himself pay for it. There would be no mercy for any of them. Kagome had become an entirely different person, but if confronted with such a change, she would only insist that she had become what fate had made her; who she _needed _to become.

.........................

That's pretty good for someone who's writing with her eyes half shut and who also just spelled "writing" as "righting" before she someone how caught it and fixed it.


	10. Girls With Satisfied Minds

Guess who.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kill Bill, Inuyasha, or anything related to either of them.

.........................

Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento

Chapter 10-Girls With Satisfied Minds

...................

"Can I ask you something?" she sighed and leaned across the doorframe, suddenly looking exhausted or depressed or both at once.

"You knew this day would come," he said quietly.

She shook her head gently and averted her eyes to the ground. "It's not about that. Well, not really."

He was silent as a response that gave her permission to ask her question. Again her chest rose and fell slowly as she shifted position so that her back was to the frame and her head was turned upwards towards the sky. "Why did you let me go, and not her?"

He had already prepared an answer for the question he knew she might someday ask him. "The circumstances were different."

"I thought you'd say something like that." Apparently she had also prepared for the situation. Her head turned towards him, and with a smile on her lips she said, "Did you love her?"

"That's enough Sango."

Sango laughed lightly, "Well Sesshomaru, I'm pretty fucking glad I never got a boyfriend like you. Nice way to show you care."

"Sango," he warned dangerously, "I refuse to go into this with you."

"Hey, don't I have a right to know?" she suddenly became strict and alert. "After all, if I'm going to get killed for something that was mostly your fault, I'd sure as hell like to know why you did it in the first place."

"I did not say you would be killed." He took a step closer to her, "I came here to warn you, this is a favor."

"A favor?" she snorted, "This is a favor? I'll tell you what would be a fucking favor," Sango advanced towards him, as he had advanced toward her, "Tell me why you made me do it. It's the _least _you can do for me."

His golden eyes narrowed, and anyone else but a close acquaintance would have been intimidated by it. "And that in the end is what it comes down to Sango. You did it. It was within your power to disregard my request, but you did it."

She swallowed and seemed to waver for a moment while he continued. "You destroyed your share of innocent lives that day, and it was by your own will. Don't pretend that I forced you into anything."

Sango's eyes grew wide while her body started to shake gently, "I still want to know though," her voice was meek, having lost all of its former confidence. "Did you like that girl?"

There was an awkward pause. "Be ready."

She nodded while tears streaked down her face, "I will be, thank you."

Sesshomaru was prepared to leave then when she interrupted him once more with another strange comment. "I think about what I did every night." She took a moment to breathe, "Every night. I wonder what made me kill those people, and then I wonder what made me kill the people before that, and before that."

"If it's any consolation, the majority of people you killed were criminals."

Sango shrugged, "Yeah, they were fuckers. They really were." She started to smile again, "But I remember that kid, you know the one? The one we did right before we...we got her?"

"Yes."

"And and, his mom, and the dad..."

"Grandfather," he corrected shortly.

"Yeah, and then at that hospital; those were _good _people Sesshomaru."

He was silent. There was no use protesting, she wasn't lying in the least. And he didn't have the strength or evidence to prove that because they were human, they deserved to die. That just wasn't true.

"And I killed them. We all did." Sango shuffled her feet, and some of her long dark hair fell off of her shoulder and formed a screen in front of her face. "It was because of her, I know. She really got to you." There was a noise inside the house, which alerted Sango to the fact that someone was awake, and might discover her. She started to speak more quickly. "I won't press that part about her, I swear. I'll always want to know, but what I need you to tell me is really, why did you let _me _go?"

He thought about it for a while, trying to compose the best answer that wouldn't make him lie to himself even more so than he had in the past few years. "Try and be satisfied when I assure you Sango, the circumstances were different."

She leaned back, and then another noise, this time of footsteps, made her stand rigid and turn towards the door. "Okay," was the last thing she said to him before she gave him a brief and serious nod and then disappeared into her house.

Sesshomaru stood by the door for a second longer, listening to Sango begin speaking to what sounded like a child. A little girl. He knew she had a daughter.

While he stood there he considered the question he had asked himself thousands of times, and had just now been proposed by Sango twice. Once when she had asked him if he'd loved Kagome, and again when she'd asked him why he'd let _her _go.

.......................

Kagome chewed her nails in the spacious hotel room. Her eyes were trained on nothing, but were focused intensely. She hadn't been so confused or irritated in a long time.

Having just discovered from a newspaper that she had been in a coma for just over five years, she was shocked to discover, not that she had lost so much time, but that she didn't feel the slightest bit of remorse for herself.

It had been a while since she'd been completely consumed by rage. So consumed, in fact, that there was no room for anything else. She wasn't compassionate about anything, she wasn't gentle or timid. In fact, she didn't feel violently angry most of the time, as she'd also expected.

Kagome had pictured herself as maybe throwing things across rooms eventually. In time she figured grief and regret would get to her, and she'd go insane. Somehow at the very least she'd expected to feel some sort of sadness for the five years she'd gotten knocked off.

But what Kagome could safely conclude was that somehow she'd gracefully realized that it was bad that so many awful things had happened to her, but what it really came down to, for her, was that there was no one left to care. Kagome had no one, no family, no friends, no little daughter. She was totally alone, and she'd understood immediately that now she could either drown herself in self-pity, or get something accomplished before she went out for good.

This point had slowly begun to dawn on her, and as she wrenched herself from her doubt and insecurity, ideas formed in her head. More specifically, a single idea, that she knew would officially satisfy her in every way she could ever desire. That idea, that most wonderful solution, was revenge.

Kagome had known at the start, from when she'd first woken up and felt the absence of her baby, that Sesshomaru would pay for everything. All the lives he and his group had claimed would get him. She would make sure of it.

Her teeth left her fingers, and she stood up confidently. Kagome was a little more at ease now, though still wavering a bit with grief. Now she had a goal, and that was a nice, secure thing. She would kill everyone, the three women, the man, and most importantly, Sesshomaru.

Money would not be an issue. She'd been pleasantly informed after accessing her bank account as Meyumi Tran after five years that everything Laura and Amelia had ever had had been turned over to her at their death as part of their amended wills; and there was even some from Lilly, who otherwise had given everything to her daughter. What it all meant though was that Kagome had the means to make her fantasies of pay-back a reality, and nothing would stop her from seeing them through.

And though she herself had absolutely no idea who any of the people who had arrived at the hospital were, aside from Sesshomaru (who she knew would never allow himself to be recorded in any fashion), or where they were, she knew how she would find out. Through a library computer she had learned that there had been one other survivor aside from herself of the massacre at the hospital. She would talk to that survivor, and discover the names of the killers. After taking care of them, the plan was that they, in turn, would point her towards Sesshomaru.

.....................

She looked down at the piece of paper in her hand and sighed deeply. The white walls around her seemed ready to collapse on top of her at any moment. It was a very ominous building, and instilled a sense of claustrophobia in her heart that she hadn't felt for a long time. Kagome couldn't understand how someone might believe that putting a mentally unstable person in such a place would in any way improve his or her condition.

Shaking it off with a shudder of repulsion, she started to walk down the great hall before her. It was cold, and Kagome hugged her arms for warmth, feeling very out of place in the empty corridor. Her visitor's name tag beamed out at everything from her chest, suggesting that she was actually in the mood to say, "HELLO MY NAME IS: Serena." Serena was a fake of course; it was too risky to hand out her real name left and right just yet. Suddenly, she stopped and turned towards a door.

It was white and imposing, like just about everything else around, but it did have a small window, and that was its only good attribute. After pausing a little while longer in uncertainty, Kagome composed herself and knocked. A female doctor, stout and round with middle age, answered the door and invited her in warmly.

She stood then in a depressing, dim room filled with faded, padded furniture. Everything was arranged carefully, in just such a fashion. Kagome moved forward in curiosity while her eyes roved over the rest of the room. Then the doctor's voice alerted her to her task again and she followed the woman. Though there was no one in what appeared to be a sitting room, one could hear voices through the walls.

They stopped together at another door, and the doctor opened it cautiously, stepping in first and immediately cooing to someone that Kagome couldn't quite see. She began to feel very uncomfortable, suddenly aware that she had no idea how she was going to break the subject of her visit to someone who was allegedly suffering greatly from just the memory of it.

The woman reappeared again in front of Kagome and ushered her inside. "This is your visitor Tanya," she said sweetly, "Her name is Serena, she's your cousin, remember?"

Kagome moved into Tanya's room shyly, afraid of what she might see. She expected someone bent over in fright, trembling or muttering to herself. She was paranoid. It would make her feel impossibly guilty if she had to terrorize a poor young woman with something she just wanted to forget.

Instead, however, Kagome looked at Tanya and saw a twenty something adult who looked about as dignified as anybody you'd see on the street. She was reading quietly, and though hunched, she was not speaking to herself in foreign tongues or fondling random inanimate objects. Tanya looked up as Kagome entered the room, and the mystery of her presence in the dismal hospital was revealed.

As Kagome looked at Tanya, and Tanya looked back, Kagome saw that there was a great weight on the girl's shoulders. They were similar in the fact that they both had to walk around with something heavy that they couldn't shake. Well, Tanya wouldn't be able to shake it any time soon, but Kagome was a go-getter, she would take care of it.

The doctor stood awkwardly beside them while they regarded each other with intense stares. Then, realizing that she was obviously a third wheel in a relationship that was deeper than what she could comprehend, she tapped Kagome on the shoulder and whispered some to dos and don'ts in her ear. Among them was a strong warning against mentioning Tanya's experiences at a certain hospital several years back.

She nodded in response and the doctor left them alone to conduct their visit. Kagome moved forward confidently and pressed her hands into her pockets, smiling. "Hi," she said.

Tanya returned her smile slightly, her gaze never wavering, "Hi. So you're my 'cousin'?"

Kagome smirked, "It was a risk I was willing to take."

"What? That I would find out you weren't actually my cousin?" She shrugged. "My parents don't visit, I don't see heads or fucking tails of my sisters. Hell if I'd pass up the chance to see someone from the outside world."

Kagome laughed gently and felt her respect for Tanya grow; she reminded her keenly of Laura. "Why do they keep you in here Tanya? If you don't mind my asking. You seem pretty normal for a place like this."

Tanya snorted, "I don't even know who you are and you're already asking me questions?"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she waved it off with a gesture of her hand, "I'll tell you. Suffice to say that an unfortunate disaster occured and I...I had a breakdown." She paused and sighed deeply. "Before I knew it they had me in here, kicking and screaming in a real straight jacket. I calmed down, but you know, it's not an easy thing to forget, and when I remember...you know."

Kagome was silent. The smile had long since faded from her face, and her mouth was a straight line. It conveyed such seriousness that Tanya unconsciously flinched away from her. The curtains of the window stirred in the breeze as Kagome thought over how to explain her position to Tanya.

Suddenly, she spoke. "Tanya," the noise startled the patient, who had lost her cool in a second. "I know this is a lot to ask, but I need you to tell me what it was that made you breakdown."

Tanya shivered in surprise. "What?"

Kagome bit her lip and looked down to the floor in hard concentration and frustration. Part of her was eager to withdraw any sort of information she could, from any source, even a frightened girl. The other side of her, however, was straining. No matter how hard Kagome became, she could never disregard the innocence of another person.

"Please," she begged suddenly, "Tanya..." Kagome strode to her bed, and hovered above her with the look of a hurt dog, "Please tell me all that you remember about that day in the hospital."

Her eyes became wide and scared, "How do you know about that?" she snapped. "They must have told you! I told them not to tell anyone!"

"Please!" Kagome cried again, interrupting the heated emotions that were rising in the patient. She went still immediately, and her attention was restored to her visitor's face. "Please tell me Tanya!"

There was a moment of silence, and then, "Who are you?"

Kagome had known she would eventually ask her that, and very carefully, she started to explain. "Do you remember if there were any other survivors in that accident that day?"

Her eyebrows went down in deep thought, "Yes. There was another girl."

"Well..." Kagome's voice began to shake, "What were the details surrounding that girl? Do you know them?"

Tanya nodded hesitantly, "Yeah I do. She went into a coma, they...they thought she was dead for a while. And then they found out that she was still alive; but in a coma," she repeated.

"Yes," Kagome urged her on, "And what else?"

"No one knew who she was, there weren't any records. They tried to find out, they identified some other bodies, they asked around..." Gradually she became more comfortable speaking, and her eyes adapted a distant quality while she continued to tell Kagome about the mystery she had kept up with for years. "Some people had seen her, but no matter what they couldn't find out who she was. It was like someone was setting up dead ends for them."

She sighed and looked up at Kagome, "About a month ago, at the hospital they had flown her to after about the first year, she woke up."

"She woke up?" Kagome asked her in a whisper.

Tanya swallowed, "Yeah she did. After five years, but...No one saw her. For all they know she could have been kidnaped, there weren't any fingerprints or, or anything... There was an unconscious nurse by her bed when they got to her room, he was really banged up." She shook her head slowly, "It was like he was burned, that isn't possible though. She wouldn't have even been able to move her legs after waking up, they said so." Her fingers gathered in the fabric of her pants, "The nurse's car went missing too, she took it. They haven't found her either; she just disappeared."

Kagome let the tears fall at the conclusion of Tanya's story while Tanya herself looked up coyly and saw her crying. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Kagome laughed again, with false cheerfulness. "Yeah, I'm pretty tough to catch..."

Silence. Long silence.

"Oh my God."

The girl's hands flew up to her mouth as she sidled away from her visitor. Kagome brushed her tears away, and looked up to face the terrified, thrilled Tanya, who was by then half curled among her pillows. "I suppose I've got some explaining to do, huh?"

The patient gasped and then burst into giggles. She shook her head around and then laughed outright, happily. It lasted for a few seconds before she settled back down and was able to get a little closer to Kagome again, who was still standing in front of her. "It's really you isn't it? The girl? You woke up?"

"That's me."

Tanya giggled again, "No fucking way... You, you were there in the hospital that day? That was you?"

Kagome nodded.

"But," she suddenly sounded desperate, "If you were there, please tell me–"

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me what happened!" Tanya exclaimed. "Please explain it to me, I need to know! You don't understand, it's been eating me up!" She flew into a long rush of words, "They said that you were the one they did it for, whoever did it, they were after you! They said so! The police, the detectives; there weren't any real clues, but they could tell! Please tell me why, I need to know..."

Kagome sat down slowly beside Tanya on the bed. "If I tell you anything, you need to swear you won't tell a soul."

She nodded solemnly, "I swear."

"And first, you have to tell me your side of the story."

Tanya hesitated, "I couldn't do that."

"Then my lips are sealed."

She pounded the pillows, "Why?!"

Kagome gave her a stern look and levelly handled the side of the patient that had gotten her hospitalized in the first place. The confused, scared, cornered, furious side. "Why do you think I came here in the first place? Just to tell you about what happened to me? Because I can assure you that I'm looking forward to reliving the experience just as much as you are."

Tanya went silent and swallowed, understanding that she had been pinned down by Kagome's logic. And although she knew she could have challenged her visitor with the fact that she had already said enough to make herself suffer, she decided that there was something about Kagome that said the world owed _her _big time.

And so with much reluctance, she began her story.

"I had just started there, I was an intern, you know...a nobody." Her voice was so faint and delicate that Kagome had to strain to hear it. "About a month into my work there, I...I can't do it," she suddenly said, "I'm so sorry," drops of translucent liquid shivered in her eyes, "I just can't."

Kagome leaned forward and draped her arm across her shoulders soothingly, "Please..." she whispered quietly in the girl's ear.

Tanya's shoulders shook softly for a while before she had gathered enough strength to go on. And still when she spoke there were great pauses in her words every now and then. "I, it was okay, it was just a normal day...you know? You remember it?"

She nodded, as though she had been in a condition to remember the day in vivid detail.

"And we were at the desk...m-my friend and I were at the desk. I was just talking...t-to her, and, and..." She took several long, deep breathes before continuing; her entire frame seemed to shake and convulse with each inhale and exhale. "I left. I, I was done talking to h-her, and I turned around and started walking towards m-my wing of the hospital... And then, just as I turned a...a corner, I heard s-someone talking to my friend..."

She paused again and rubbed her swelling eyes before eventually succumbing to the horror of her memories. Tanya shuddered once, twice, and then let her face drop into her hands. Kagome stepped in to remind her of her task. "What happened?"

"The people my f-friend were t-talking to...they had an accent, and I thought, 's-sounds interesting, I'll g...go look... So I did, I just sort of turned a little b-bit, and I just barely s-saw them from around the corner, I didn't even have a g-g-good view yet, and..." It was sad and pitiful, the way she had to talk. She could hardly escape the pressure of the tears in her eyes long enough to put two words together without tripping over letters and syllables.

"...Yes?"

"They shot her...They shot her! My friend, they shot her!" Tanya burst into fresh tears and flung herself into her covers, away from Kagome. Again her frame was quaking, and seemed in such a chaotic state that if Kagome were to touch her she might explode. Yet even so, she reached out carefully and touched her shoulder, feeling that she was close to achieving the information she needed.

"Please Tanya..." she asked, rubbing the girl's back soothingly, "What happened after that?"

Her voice was muffled and quiet through the layers of fabric she had buried her face in, but Kagome could still hear her. She bowed her face beside the patient's and listened with every fiber of her being for anything that she had to say.

"They started to talk..." she said, her voice seemingly a bit more level after she had cried some more of her pain out, "They couldn't see me, I was just out of their view...but I could see them..."

"What did they look like?" Kagome suddenly said, interrupting her, "What did they say? Did you hear their names?"

Tanya nodded slowly, shoulders still heaving slightly from her efforts. "They were talking...about you. They were talking about you, I know it."

"What did they say?"

"They said, 'she should be easy to find,' and..." Her face turned away from her again, "They said that they would have to 'prevent themselves from being seen.' They said it like it was nothing, they knew what they would do..."

"What did they do?"

"They killed everyone, everyone in the entire hospital, but me. I hid from them, I don't know how I survived, but I did."

Kagome looked forward intensely, hardly able to bear even the thought of the blood and destruction Tanya must have seen. It had been a massacre, pure and simple, all for her. All because of her. If she had never put her petty interests forth in the first place...none of them would've had to die...If she'd just stayed with Sesshomaru...

Her heart hardened against the thought. Kagome realized with determination and fresh strength, as well as fresh anger, that she'd had every right to leave him then. She'd had every right to kill him long ago, and she hadn't. She was blameless. But regardless, now she had an entire hospital of people to seek revenge for along with the rest.

"What names did they mention Tanya?" she asked insistently, "What did they look like?"

Tanya curled her fingers around her sheets. "There was one woman...She had long, long dark hair. It was b-black. She looked...sad, but I know she wasn't."

"What was her name?"

"I heard her called...one of them, it was a man, he talked to each of them...He called her Kikyo. He was thanking them..."

"Did the man," Kagome began quietly, "Have long pale hair, and gold eyes?"

Tanya nodded again, "Yes."

It was then Kagome's turn to focus her rage, and her fingers formed fists around Tanya's bedding as well. Her fury flared inside of her like a flame at the mere thought of Sesshomaru. "What about the rest of them?"

"There was one oth-other man. He had long black hair like the other woman, but it was shorter... He had r-red eyes. Red."

"What was his name?"

"Na...Naraku."

Kagome concentrated to remember, but it wasn't even necessary. The names that Tanya gave her would stay with her forever.

"And the others?"

"There were two other w-women. One had black hair, like the others. It was sh-short, and tied back and she h-had and eyepatch. She was the one who shot m-my friend. She shot her, like it didn't even matter... Like it didn't even matter. Her name was K-Kagura."

"Kagura..." Kagome echoed. She felt that she somehow knew Kagura more than the others; that they had met at another time, away from the rest but with no less malice intended.

"Her eye, the only one...It was pink. Bright pink. Ma-Magenta, it scared me so much..."

She buried her face in the pillow again and breathed into it deeply to steady herself. When she had calmed down she resumed speaking.

"And then the l-last one... She, her name was Sango. Her hair was brown, l-long, but, but not very long...She looked like, sh-she didn't even w-want to be there. But I know better, I know she killed people too. ...I h-hate her."

Tanya started to weep again while Kagome stared out at nothing; her eyes were focused on empty air as she listened to the girl cry tears of grief and fear beside her.

"I hate all of them!"

Sadness for the girl welled up quickly in her heart, and Kagome had to look away. But she was also very grateful; Tanya had not only given her the information she'd needed, she'd also made her stronger. Because Kagome then had an entire hospital of people to seek revenge for along with all the rest.

"Thank you, Tanya," she said quietly, and carefully lifted herself from the bed and turned towards the door. She was just easing off of the mattress when she felt a hand around her arm, keeping her from leaving.

Tanya gazed up at her, face tear-streaked, but hopeful. "You haven't told me why..."

Kagome returned her stare silently for a moment, letting the reality of what had just happened sink in for the both of them.

"I can't give you all of the details."

"Th-That's all right," Tanya insisted.

Kagome took a deep breath, "Sesshomaru, the one with the white hair, killed the love of my life. He then proceeded to turn my life into a living hell while holding the lives of my family members above my head. After that he got me pregnant, and then when I tried to run, he followed me. After promising to let me go, he emerged at the hospital as I was about to give birth to my baby with his group and killed all of my friends, as well as my child. He then explained to me that he had murdered my family also, and after that he put a bullet in my head with the intention of killing me. I have woken up now, five years later."

For a moment Tanya was speechless. She stared at Kagome in open-mouthed, horrified fascination, almost unable to believe that such a heroin of tragedy was sitting beside her. Even more farfetched: that she had managed to keep herself together after such disaster.

"What are you going to do?" She finally asked in a faint whisper.

Kagome smiled in devilish pleasure, "I am going to kill every last one of them. I'm going to kill Sango, I'm going to kill Naraku, I'm going to kill Kikyo, I'm going to kill Kagura, and finally, when all of that is done....I am going to _kill _Sesshomaru."

Tanya found that she had lost her voice then, she was so in awe of Kagome, what she had been through and the emotion with which she explained her plans. Seeing the opportunity to leave quietly was evident, she placed her hand on the girl's head, looked down at her serenely, and said, "Thank you Tanya. Thank you very much. Thanks to you I'll be able to get revenge for all the people I've lost, and for all the people who died in that hospital. I'm promising you now that everything will be okay."

Tanya nodded dumbly, still at a loss for words, and so Kagome walked towards the door and left the room silently, looking every bit a wonderful, tragic warrior. She made her way out of the mental hospital with renewed strength, because after seeing the faith, admiration, and pity in Tanya's eyes she knew that there was nothing in the world left to stop her from achieving her goal. If she could believe in that idea, it was one thing, but if another person also believed in it, then it would truly happen.

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Ahhh, we finally start to get somewhere! Hurray for bloody violence in later chapters! And by the way, I'm sleepy because alas, school is _not _over yet. In fact it's still in the mood to foul things up because EXAMS ARE ON THE HORIZON. Ha. Ha. Ha...VERY FUNNY–_NOT_. WHOEVER THOUGHT OF EXAMS PAYS DEARLY FOR HIS OR HER CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.


	11. I Sleep With My Guns

I apologize again for borrowing directly from Kill Bill, but once you find out which character I chose for Hattori Hanzo, I think you'll agree that he seems like the guy who would end up running a restaurant. It's such a cliche, but I couldn't resist. He's perfect, after all.

By the way, I'm surprised no one has mentioned that if Kikyo exists in present time...which Kikyo did Kagome know about in the Feudal Era? It's the same for some other people. But to make up an explanation would be a huge hassle, and I'm up to doing about zip extra work right now. So if anyone does bother to question that little detail, let's just pretend that Kagome never actually heard Kikyo's name spoken, she just knew her as the mysterious woman everybody liked better when she was dead.

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Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or Kill Bill or anything related to either of them.

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Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento

Chapter 11-I Sleep With My Guns

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Clouds passed under her window quickly slowly, and beneath them, ocean. It dragged by without changing pace, and the scenery never changed color. The long, beautiful expanse of crystal blue had become tiring long ago, and the occasional island to liven things up was welcome.

Her eyes closed gradually in surrender to sleep. She hadn't had that in a while, and although she was not yet considered wicked, she knew she would become so, and there is no rest for the wicked.

A layer of underground crime exists everywhere. In every country there is a network of conspiracies and evil connecting things. It's almost like a private world, and once you enter it, laws and rules become ineffectual. Those who operate under this network are deemed to do anything they want, and most often, if they're truly professionals, they're never caught. It's a system that operates above the law, naturally, but it is never touched or combated by the rest of the world in a way that might actually hurt it. It simply exists, it always has, it always will.

This dark net of crime is gifted with many freedoms, and many pleasures. What it's operatives want, they take, what they need, they have. They abide by a certain code of honor, but it is light and rarely enforced. It seems that usually there is strong brotherhood among the criminals, or none at all.

They typically refuse intervention from society; police are rarely brought into any situation, no matter how great. Instead they find their own ways of eliminating concerns. But this underground does deal with the clean world occasionally; that is usually when it is in the mood to dispose of a threat.

Kagome had no trouble tapping into the network of crime, all she had to do was drop the name of one of Sesshomaru's party, and information was yielded on the spot, or after a little persuasion. Sesshomaru himself was hardly known at all, and she had difficulty trying to discover things about him, thus the importance of the names of his proteges was proved. It seemed that his group was well known, though she seemed never allowed to know why, but Sesshomaru.... People knew him, unknowingly. They were very aware of the distinct connection between Sango, Naraku, Kikyo, and Kagura. Everyone knew that they worked under the command of a single ridiculously powerful person, but they did not know his name, who he really was, or really anything at all.

But Kagome hadn't necessarily been searching for things about Sesshomaru, or his killers; she usually couldn't find anything useful anyway. What she had been searching for, was the maker of their weapons. It was a difficult, specific thing to find, and her frustration grew steadily.

Eventually, however, she realized another way to phrase her question, and soon rather than asking for the maker of Sesshomaru's weapon, Kagura's weapon, Naraku's, or Sango's, she started asking for a person who could make weapons for people with unique skills.

Kagome had known right from the start that she could not just go charging after her murderers without being properly armed. And that in turn had raised an interesting question: what _was _the weapon for her? Originally the bow had been the obvious choice, but training with Sesshomaru had taught her that her power could be channeled into a number of different things. With this broad range of choices she finally decided on a sword, as she'd always been more adept with a blade in Sesshomaru's presence than anything else.

There were few priestesses left, but a small number of demons quietly blended in unnoticed by nearly everyone, including monks and priests, etc. They were so well disguised and clever about their identities that few even in the network knew what they were. But the point was, there had to be someone out there who could help her find the right person to make her a weapon. Because she knew there was a demon out there who had powers like her who'd needed a sword at some point.

After a long search, someone, a demon with certain strengths of his own as she'd predicted there would be, was able to point her in the right direction. He warned her first that the one who had forged his sword, also a friend from many years back, was liable to refuse her. He had quit the trade many years ago But Kagome was determined, and it was the best bet she had.

Now on a plane to Japan, in search of the sword master she had been directed to, Kagome fought the onslaught of sleep and felt the addictive pleasure of knowing that with every mile she traveled she was getting closer to achieving her goal.

..............

The tips of her fingers delicately brushed away the little curtain that barred her entry before she stepped in. It was small, and somewhat dingy restaurant; outfitted with little more than a few timeworn tables and chairs, as well as an equally plain bar with some stools set in front of it.

There was a man standing behind it who looked both considerably out of place and right at home in the stuffy, dusty, somewhat cozy restaurant. He raised his head at her arrival. Kagome smiled at him, and he immediately flashed her a toothy grin. "A young lady!" he exclaimed in perfect Japanese. "I assume you must be a native!" He was referring to her physical attributes.

She bowed her head and smiled charmingly, "I'm sorry," she did her best to banish all traces of an accent, unsure is she should be revealing her origins to someone who had made swords for villains of all kinds for hundreds of years, "I don't speak Japanese."

His grin became even more large, and he began speaking in English for her immediately, "Ahhh, wonderful! I love to practice my English!" Every movement he made, every syllable he pronounced was entirely fake. Kagome wondered what had made a life of insistent pseudo-delightfulness so appealing to him.

"I don't know much of the language here; it's so good to be able to talk to someone in English," she said sweetly, with the precise enthusiasm of a friendly foreigner.

"Is that so? That is good, it is my honor to make a pretty girl like yourself more comfortable!" he managed to sound decently interested, and waved her toward him, "Come sit at the bar, sit! Tell me about where you come from."

Kagome did as he requested and settled herself on a stool before him. "Well," she began, "I'm American. And man," she looked around in awe, as if she could see through the walls, "I thought _we _were industrial. This is amazing."

He laughed loudly and shook his finger at her, "You are very funny!"

She flashed him a little smile and nodded her head, "Thank you."

"Now..." he put his hands on the table and stared intensely at her, "What may I bring you?"

Kagome paused in thought, and then shrugged casually, "I suppose tea would be just fine."

"Wonderful!" He clapped his hands together in approval and spun around to pry about the little kitchen that was set up behind him. As he wove around the small space, grabbing the necessary supplies, he continued to try and carry on a conversation with her.

"What brings you such distance from home?" he asked her, "seeing sights?"

Kagome smiled wryly, though he couldn't see it with his back to her. "No..." she drawled, deliberately making him guess.

"Family? Friends?"

"I suppose you might say that..." she responded coyly.

"Aha! And who are the lucky people who are allowed your company?" He set the kettle on his small stove cheerily, completely unobservant of her sudden shift in tone.

Kagome leaned a little closer to him, and let a touch of her accent slip into her voice, not much, but just enough to make him curious. "It's just one person. A man."

He stood up, and turned around to look at her suspiciously. With a bit more hesitancy, and much more solemnity, he asked her the inevitable question. "What man?"

She drew very close then, with a sympathetic smile on her face, "You're Totosai, aren't you?"

He immediately stepped back from her, his hand reaching out swiftly towards a row or knifes strung up on the wall, Kagome sat up quickly, "I'm not here to fight!" she said stiffly, in her native tongue.

"What do you want with me?!" Totosai snapped fiercely. His voice had lost its warmth, its stupid joy, all of which had been replaced with alarm, and even fear. His strange eyes seemed to bulge even more with concern. "Who are you?!"

"I need you to help me," Kagome said calmly. "Please, I don't want to fight."

"Who are you?" he repeated, his hand never straying far from the knives.

She glanced at them silently before answering him. Even if he did try a weapon on her, and even if he was a demon, Kagome was confident that she could defeat him easily. Nevertheless, the last she wanted was to confront the old, withered demon. "I'm Higurashi; Higurashi, Kagome."

"Why did you lie to me?"

"I didn't know if I could trust you."

His fingers suddenly dropped from the vicinity of the blades, but he still stood rigidly, "Who do you work for?"

She swallowed, "Myself."

At that reply he snorted impudently, "How bold. What do you want with me." Apparently he was through asking questions politely, as his last request was bitten off like a command instead.

Kagome swallowed her pride and ignored his rudeness, "I need you to make me a sword."

Totosai huffed and whipped away from her, "No."

"Please!"

"No!" His fierce eyes froze her in place with a sharp look over his shoulder, "I do not make weapons for killing anymore!"

A heavy silence ensued as Kagome struggled to find some way to explain her situation to him persuasively. "I'm begging you," She stood up and placed her hands on the bar sternly, "Please make me a sword."

The sincere desperation in her eyes reached him slowly. It was obvious, even to someone with a heart as cold as his, that she was truly in need of a blade. Reluctantly, he let some of his barriers fall to her convincing stare.

"Why? You aren't even fit to wield one of my swords. You're just a human woman."

Kagome smiled slightly and shook her head, "No, I'm not. And my purpose is a good one, I assure you."

"Not human you say?" he sneered, "You can't fool me girl. I can smell it."

"But can you sense it?" she shot back. He visibly faltered; the confusion was clear in his eyes. Kagome tilted her head to him, "I guess you need a demonstration?"

Her fingers splayed on the counter and sat straight and still before the skin on her hand became illuminated by the faint violet light she could summon any time she wished. The light gradually intensified while Totosai's shock and amazement grew before her.

"A...a petty magic trick," he stammered.

"No."

Her fingers suddenly formed a fist and she jerked her arm back. Not even a second after she had pulled it away, her hand bathed in what resembled lavender flames, she let it strike the table. The surface immediately succumbed to her bare hand, a blaze of purple burned away the rest. When it had finished, a hole roughly the size of her fist had been formed all through the table to the ground.

Totosai took a shaky step back from her again. "That's just the beginning," Kagome said cunningly, her girlish naivete returning for just a moment.

"But, that's not right!" he hissed, baffled, "You're human!"

"I'm a priestess," she informed him succinctly.

Reverence had suddenly replaced all of the fear and apprehension in his eyes, "A priestess?" he asked her in a faint whisper. He came towards her in a hurry. "I didn't think there were any real ones left."

To Kagome's surprise, he suddenly brought both of her hands palms up to his face, sighing with amazement. She blushed at his sudden change of mood. "Well, that's the best way to describe me I guess...I'm actually really one of a kind."

"Oh no no," he chittered, "You're definitely a true priestess if I ever saw one. And I _have _seen one!"

Her hopes rose with his admiration, "Then does this mean you'll make me a sword?"

He suddenly dropped both of her hands, but his gaze remained fixed on the counter, "I am sorry Priestess, but I cannot make you a sword..."

"Why?"

"I stopped making instruments of death and pain many years ago...To go back on my word would be a terrible sin. Even I, a demon, respect my own promises. Especially the ones I make to the world."

"This is very important," Kagome insisted, "You _must _make me a sword that can handle the power I've got. Please."

Totosai was silent; his large eyes gazed at her steadily, never moving from her. He studied her face, the emotions it conveyed, the position of her body. She was leaning forward earnestly, pleading with every strength of appearance she had. After inspecting her thoroughly for just a few moments, he gave her a look of pure regret and said, "Come with me."

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Totosai had been guiding her up rickety old steps for a while. They had been silent during the ascent, but just as they rounded another corner, he chose to speak.

"Do you want to know why I stopped making swords for killing, Priestess?"

She pointed her chin downwards warily, "Yes."

"I will tell you then." He took a deep breath before beginning, "For many years, I forged swords of all kinds and sizes for many different demons and men. It was my craft, I loved it. And if I was ever fortunate enough to see my swords put to use I smiled. The only emotion I felt when I saw the blood of an innocent fly was satisfaction."

Kagome stared thoughtfully at the space in front of her.

"And then one day, a very powerful demon, my dear friend, asked me to create a sword from one of his fangs for his youngest son."

She nearly froze where she was, but said nothing and made no sudden movements as he went on.

"I was happy to make the blade, and put more care into it than I had ever done for a weapon before. And while I made this sword, my friend explained to me its purpose. He said that his young child had been born to a human mother, that he was an outcast half-breed. He wanted the sword to be for him, to remind him that he had ability to summon the power that would always lie in him. He wanted his son to be strong, but as a demon and a human; because nothing was more beautiful and binding as his mortal mother's love. The sword was thus also meant to make him aware of the good strength that rested in the human race, of the love they could give, and how wonderful they were to protect."

Kagome could feel the tears rising in her eyes.

"He had an older brother as well, who was hard and cruel. He despised his brother for his human blood, and his father for loving him. As a parting lesson for him, my friend had me create another sword, one that could not kill, but could only heal and revive the dead. This brother was enraged, he coveted the destructive power of his brother's weapon and when his father died and his sibling went missing he began his search for the blade so that he might find it and apply it to his own desires."

She bit her lip to keep from weeping.

"Eventually he discovered the sword's hiding place, but it was his father's tomb, placed within his brother's own eye. Thus when it was found out, they chased after it together, along with a mortal girl who was a companion of the younger son. They fought, and the elder of the two brothers killed the other."

They suddenly stopped before a door, but he did not open it. Nor did he turn around and face her as she wept quietly. Totosai merely kept his head bowed as he continued his tale.

"To know that it was my creation that tore his children apart the most, that it killed the half-breed, was heartbreak enough. But it did not end there. The girl that had gone with them was used by the remaining son to carry the sword, because he could not touch it due to a spell. She used the spell against him just a few hours after they left the tomb. Soon after she attempted to kill him, she destroyed the sword without meaning to by using her strange abilities. As revenge, the son murdered her entire village, down to the last child..."

His hand gripped the doorknob before him, as if for support. "I came as soon as I heard the news, how it reached me I'm not sure. As I traveled the only grief, the only regret I felt was for the sword and the son. But when I reached the village, I saw what my creation had done. And I knew that all of my other weapons had done damage on the same scale, of the same kind. Because of one of my swords a whole village, a son, and his companion were murdered. I don't think I truly understood what swords were used for until I saw the remains of all of those humans."

He didn't say anymore, he didn't have to. It was Kagome's turn to speak.

"Totosai..." He turned around, hearing the tears in her voice. "I think you will make me a sword."

Pausing, he stared awkwardly at her delicate, shivering frame. He was surprised by her crying, and her statement; his voice had dwindled to a whisper. "Why?"

She smiled up at him woefully, "I was the girl who destroyed Tetsusaiga. And I need a sword to get revenge for a few things, Inuyasha and the village included."

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Okay okay...violence soon. That's the second time a chapter's ended with Kagome saying something like that. Annoying much?


	12. Sword Swings

Oh make up your own author's note.

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Disclaimer: Sue me and you will die a slow and painful death. I obviously don't own Inuyasha, or Kill Bill, etc., if I'm in this state of affairs.

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Lei non Deve Parlare, Sento

Chapter 12-Sword Swings

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Totosai shook his head stiffly, slowly. It had been at least a minute since either of them had said a word or even moved an inch. This first gesture was rigid, awkward, like he was having difficulty doing it.

"That isn't possible," he said quickly, and then he started to laugh. It was a wicked laugh, Kagome could help but shiver with apprehension. "That was hundreds of years ago human!"

She lowered her gaze dangerously, "How can I convince you that I'm the girl?"

"Keh!" He spat with disdain, he no longer revered her as a priestess. "I don't know how you came to know about Tetsusaiga, but I'm not about to believe that a foolish human girl survived for five hundred years; even with Goddamned powers!"

Kagome bristled with rage, but could only respect his disbelief. She would have insisted it as being farfetched if someone had told it to _her_. "Totosai..." she began slowly, "I can assure you, I am that girl. I was lucky enough to escape Sesshomaru that day, but when I went back through the well–"

"What well?" He interrupted shortly, hand still wrapped tightly around the doorknob.

Her eyes darted around as she swallowed, "In a shrine by my house there was...a well that, well, it," she fumbled for the right words, "When I jumped into it I would be transported through time to the...feudal era."

He cackled insultingly, "You're pathetic, is that the best you can come up with?!" His hand rocketed towards the wall and slammed against it imposingly, "I'm through with this! I'll listen to no more of your idiot claims!"

The elderly demon moved towards her in an effort to get back down the steps, but she snatched at his arm and held him where he was, "Stop!" she cried, "Please, I'm telling the truth!"

Totosai made a deep growling noise in his throat as he gave her a withering stare, but Kagome refused to be intimidated, "I'm really telling you the truth!" she insisted.

He snorted and tried again to push past her; she could feel her footing slipping on the stairs, "When I came back through the well Sesshomaru was there, he had waited for me for five hundred years – he wanted revenge for Tetsusaiga! He took me away from my family and trained me for years and then one day he, he...I became pregnant."

Totosai stopped his aggressive attempts to get past her and fixed his bulging eyes on her face again. There was still disapproval and fury in his composure, but also curiosity. Kagome took advantage of the momentary relapse to speak more evenly. "It's true. I-I'll prove it to you," she said adamantly, and then reached around to her hip.

Her hand flew back in front of her face bearing a tiny dagger, and Totosai flinched a little at her deftness. "I won't try to hurt you," Kagome assured him as she suddenly tore the blade across the palm of her open hand. A streak of crimson flowed immediately from the cut, and Kagome lifted it to him. "Can you smell that?"

He stared at her awkwardly for a moment or two before leaning down hesitantly like a frightened animal. His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply, and then he stood up and turned away. Kagome was startled by this, and gripped his shoulder tensely with her untarnished hand.

"There's demon in you," he barked quietly.

She nodded slowly, "Yes there is."

"It smells like the elder brother."

"It smells like Sesshomaru."

He sighed with frustration, "I still can't believe that you're the girl! How do I know?!"

"You'll just have to trust me..." She tugged on his shoulder to turn him around again, "Look at my face, do you really think I'm lying to you?"

Totosai glared at her fiercely, "Yes! You could be lying to me, you could be from Sesshomaru himself! You could be telling me these things just to get a weapon!"

"I _am _telling you these things just to get a weapon!" she snapped.

"Well then how do I believe you?!"

She was almost silenced by rage, and clenched her fists on the steps. "He killed everyone I ever loved! Make me a sword so I can kill _him_!"

"Who did he kill?"

"It's a long list..." Kagome said in a low voice, trembling with anger.

"Is that so?"

"_Yes it's so!_" Her voice rang around the dense space thunderously. "Make me a sword!"

He was momentarily startled by her sudden outburst, and could only blink in surprise before he snapped back. The initial shock had been great enough, however, for her to drive some sort of point through.

Kagome settled down visibly somewhat. A great exhaustion seemed to pass over her. "Please..." she begged, "I must have a sword. I _must _kill Sesshomaru." Her body was shaking, like his, as they stared raggedly at each other. He still seemed reluctant, and could only watch her eyes shine with tears as the seconds dragged by.

Then finally, he sighed in surrender, and bowed his head. Kagome was anxious for his next move; she swallowed tensely. His dextrous fingers stiffened around the doorknob they'd been resting on, and he turned it slowly, then opened the door.

"Follow me."

She entered after him, heart still beating wildly, and together they entered a small, naturally lit room. This light flowed through several square windows, and they were all that kept the space from making Kagome feel slightly suffocated. It was dense and quiet; the air seemed to press her down farther into the ground with every step she took.

"Where are we?" she asked tentatively as the floorboards sagged and whined beneath her.

Totosai moved ahead wordlessly, and motioned for her to come in completely before he shut the door behind her securely and bolted it. His spindly fingers moved gracefully over the lock as Kagome watched him. She noted acutely that he was very familiar with his surroundings for such an old creature and subconsciously became more cautious in his presence.

He suddenly swerved around her, still disregarding her previous question with as much haughtiness as his age and experience deemed him. Totosai scuttled out of her sight for a second, leaving the small corridor they had been occupying to roam around the corner. Kagome followed after him warily.

Having rounded the small bend, she was suddenly afforded with more of a view of the small room, and her eyes immediately rested on the walls of weapons she was surrounded with. It was overwhelming, every one had obviously been designed for a certain individual, and she could only gape in awe and amazement at the detail that had been so delicately woven into each piece.

Kagome's spirits rose with the encouraging sight of all the masterful creations, but while her eyes traveled over them all, noting their uniqueness and fashion, she began to realize a problem. Only a fraction of the weapons were swords, and even less could be wielded by someone her size, or shape.

Hesitating first, she turned around in search of Totosai, who she found leaning against a wall, watching her observe his work. His gaze was stern and judging.

"I..." she began, "Th-they're beautiful, but..." She returned her attention to the display and laughed grimly, "But none of them would fit me!"

Totosai snorted critically and pointed in front of her to a thin, elegant sword still confined by it's scabbard. It's handle was woven with red and black, and the hilt was a bloom of flat iron roses. "Try that one."

As instructed, she stepped out toward the blade confidently. Her pale fingers slid over it admirably before she gently lifted it from it's place on the wall. The scabbard dripped off of it silently like water, but she paused before removing it completely. A well of power was begging to be released from the sword, and it almost made her afraid.

"Are you sure?" Her voice came out of her throat trembling slightly.

"Yes."

With a sigh to prepare herself and a sudden flicker of movement she ripped the sword away from it's case and held it, wavering, before her. It shook falteringly in her grasp as if it had a will of it's own. Kagome grit her teeth immediately and the case was soon discarded to the floor. As both hands curled around the handle her feet began to slide underneath her.

"It's heavy!" She bit out, beginning to groan a little under the sword's tremendous, and unexpected weight.

Totasai stood up quickly and came to her side, "Do not let it dominate you!" he barked shortly.

She nodded and blinked; beads of sweat stood out on her forehead while she battled with the weapon threatening to tumble out of her grip in seconds. It took much stubborn determination, but Kagome finally was able to achieve a fairly stable control of things. But the control was precarious, and it threatened to break at any moment.

"Raise it," Totosai commanded. He had suddenly been lit up by something other than rage or arrogance.

Kagome bowed her head for a second and panted heavily as she struggled with the weapon. Her fingers were rapidly turning colors for their efforts, and also becoming slick with sweat, she wasn't sure if she could hold up much longer...

A spark of determination fueled by the possible consequences of saying "I can't" burst inside of her. In a second, her outlook on the situation changed totally. Kagome realized furiously that not only would she refuse to let a weapon defeat her, she would not give anyone, everyone, the satisfaction of knowing that it _could_. It was a strange, wild thought, difficult to explain, but it was often present in her mind whenever anything threatened her.

The familiar light that she carried inside everywhere grew around her shaking fingertips, and then spread. Gradually it encompassed her entire body, and darkened considerably as the minutes dragged by. It even seemed to leak into her eyes, which lost their own light and became shadowy and unfocused. Totosai watched her progress anxiously.

Slowly, still shaking and protesting, the sword was lifted inch by inch into the air. Kagome smiled victoriously at the sight, and was filled with satisfaction as she saw her goal getting accomplished. Then finally, as the tip was just below the wooden ceiling, it stopped resisting.

Below it, it's new mistress was blinking awkwardly. Her body ceased it's shaking, her eyes were restored to their natural appearance, and little by little her aura dimmed until it became too faint to see anymore. At first, she was at a loss, shocked by the change, and then she swung the weapon downwards to the ground in a mighty swipe.

Her smile returned as it hissed through the air magnificently. It was no longer special by any way that she could tell. To Kagome, it was just a normal sword then. The vibrant metal flew through the air imposingly in a few more experimental swings before she guided it's point directly in front of Totosai's nose, where it stopped.

"What now?"

It was then his turn to smile as he reached out for it. "You have conquered this sword, it's yours now."

Kagome fumed immediately, "But you have to make me one."

Totosai fingered the blade almost lovingly before he suddenly withdrew, as if he'd been wounded. As he stroked his hand consolingly he looked up again at Kagome's angry face. "I told you already, I no longer make swords."

A heated sigh escaped her lips as she studied the sword in her hand, frustrated. "Well...What am I supposed to do with _this_?"

"Use it," he responded smartly.

"But," her breathing grew frenzied, "This is nothing! This can't beat Sesshomaru! I need a sword that will...that will compliment my powers."

"It has the potential to do that."

"I don't know about that."

Totosai touched it's tip lightly and proceeded to walk around her in a circle carefully. "It is your size...It fits your shape, with modifications...it could do whatever you want."

Kagome turned to him swiftly, "Then you must modify it for me!"

"Yes..." He drawled slowly, revealing the fact that he had been making her guess for the sake of his promises about his abandoned practice, "I suppose I could do that."

Her hope was fully restored, and she beamed radiantly at the elderly demon with as much delight as she had expressed more than a decade ago. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you so much..."

He halted his circling of her and grinned slightly. Her simple naivete was charming, although she didn't care to let it slip very often. It seemed that in just a scant few minutes she had been able to blissfully forget all of their previous hostilities towards one another. Yet beneath her presently happy demeanor he could clearly sense a layer of fury. A wild animal inside her yearned to be released, and whatever had set it off would surely pay.

"You really do intend to kill him, don't you?"

Kagome nodded, her smile fading, "Yes. I have to. And all of his group..."

"Group?" he asked, suddenly intrigued. He wondered vaguely if they were thinking of the same party of demons.

Again she tilted her chin, "I don't know who they are. I don't really know anything about Sesshomaru's life in this time, but I know that they deserve to die for what they have done to me."

He chose not to inquire about just what they had done, sensing that she did not want to peruse the details of her no doubt blood-soaked story. "What are the names of the members of this 'group?' Do you know?"

"Yes." She closed her eyes. "Kikyo, Kagura, Sango, Naraku. I won't ever forget those names."

His eyes narrowed dangerously at the mention of the killers' titles.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you swear that if I change this sword for you, you will kill all of them?"

"Yes," Kagome answered confidently.

"Then while you are here, I will tell you all that I can about them."

.......................

Sort of awkward place to end the chapter, but I'm emotionally and physically exhausted and not much appeals to me besides sleep; least of all trying to add a few more lines to this. Bleh, teen angst, deal with it.


	13. l

Listen...this is hard business, but I have to delete all my stories. Not because anyone reported me, not because I hate them, I just have to. For a brief amount of time. Okay? I'm making a new screen name, I'm forming a new account. I'm reworking a few things.

Someday I'll tell you all why, but for now just please trust me. Expect things to be shut-down indefinitely for about a week or so, and then I'll put everything back up again. Perform searches for it, if you still are interesting in reading.

Thank you all so much.

-Me.


	14. Chapter 14

Okay. So I didn't have to terminate my account. But something obviously _did _happen, right? AND IT WAS BAD. Hence the initial delay.

I moved out of my house four years ahead of schedule, with five months' notice. I made the decision myself, that was good, but it didn't excuse me from how much of a shock it was. And then when I got over that, I realized that it was hard work. And then when I got over that, I made friends with beautiful people and devoted free time to being a hot-blooded teenager with them. It was fun and I have no regrets. Thus, no, I _did not _die.

Naturally after exams, several of which kicked my ass, I wanted to simmer and sulk. I've been doing that for the past few weeks. Seeing as I now have free time that can't be used to roam around with my friends because they live far away from me, I promise (_promise_) I'll start working on my stories again. But I have a sibling about to leave for Europe for six weeks straight on a painting expedition for college, so if you all don't mind I think I'll bid her farewell first.

And I might have updated once or twice if I didn't know that the security at my school had the power to hack into my system and read whatever went down from personal experience.

My plan is to finish these off one by one. However, if I don't accomplish this before September...well, the cycle starts again. The end.


End file.
